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Copyright N° 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE 

Tragedie of King Ri- 
chard the fe. 
cond. 

%As it hath heene publicly dRd 
by the right Honourable the~> 
horde ChamberUine his Ser* 
Hants* 




LONDON 

Printed by Valentine Simmes for Androw Wife, and 

3rcto be fold at his fhop inPauks church yardat 

thefigneofthe Angel. 

159 7* 



Facsimile of Title-Page, First Quarto 



$>■ 






Entered at Stationers' Hall 



Copyright, igi6 
By GINN AND COMPANY 



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



2l6.S 




3Tfte gtbenagum jgregg 

GINN AND COMPANY • PRO- 
PRIETORS • BOSTON • U.S.A. 



CI.A431432 
I*© / . 



PREFACE 

The text of this edition of King Richard the Second is 
based upon a collation of the First Quarto (1597), the seven- 
teenth century Folios, the Globe edition, the Cambridge 
(W. A. Wright) edition of 1891, and that of Delius (1882). 
As compared with the text of the earlier editions of Hudson's 
Shakespeare, it is conservative. Exclusive of changes in 
spelling, punctuation, and stage directions, very few emenda- 
tions by eighteenth century and nineteenth century editors 
have been adopted ; and these, with the more important varia- 
tions from the First Folio, are indicated in the textual notes. 
These notes are printed immediately below the text, so that 
a reader or student may see at a glance the evidence in the 
case of a disputed reading, and have some definite under- 
standing of the reasons for those differences in the text of 
Shakespeare which frequently surprise and very often annoy. 
Such an arrangement should be of special help in the case of 
a play universally read and very often acted, as actors and 
interpreters seldom agree in adhering to one text. A con- 
sideration of the more poetical, or the more dramatically 
effective, of two variant readings will often lead to rich re- 
sults in awakening a spirit of discriminating interpretation 
and in developing true creative criticism. In no sense is 
this a textual variorum edition. The variants given are only 
those of importance and high authority. 



vi THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

The spelling and the punctuation of the text are modern, 
except in the case of verb terminations in -ed, which, when 
the e is silent, are printed with the apostrophe in its place. 
This is the general usage in the First Folio. The important 
contractions in the First Folio which may indicate Elizabethan 
pronunciation ('i' th" for 'in the,' ' pamp'red' for 'pamper'd,' 
for example) are also followed. Modern spelling has to a cer- 
tain extent been adopted in the text variants, but the original 
spelling has been retained wherever its peculiarities have been 
the basis for important textual criticism and emendation. 

With the exception of the position of the textual variants, 
the plan of this edition is similar to that of the old Hudson 
Shakespeare. It is impossible to specify the various instances 
of revision and rearrangement in the matter of the Introduc- 
tion and the interpretative notes, but the endeavor has been 
to retain all that gave the old edition its unique place and to 
add the results of what seems vital and permanent in later 
inquiry and research. In this edition, as in the volumes of 
the series already published, the chapters entitled Sources, 
Date of Composition, Early Editions, Versification and Dic- 
tion, Duration of Time, Dramatic Construction and Develop- 
ment with Analysis by Act and Scene, Historical Connections, 
and Stage History are wholly new. In this edition, too, 
is introduced a chronological chart, covering the important 
events of Shakespeare's life as man and as author and indi- 
cating in parallel columns his relation to contemporary writers 
and events. As a guide to reading clubs and literary societies, 
there has been appended to the Introduction a table of the 
distribution of characters in the play, giving the acts and 
scenes in which each character appears and the number 
of lines spoken by each. The index of words and phrases 



PREFACE vii 

has been so arranged as to serve both as a glossary and 
as a guide to the more important grammatical differences 
between Elizabethan and modern English. 

While it is important that the principle of suum cuique be 
attended to so far as is possible in matters of research and 
scholarship, it is becoming more and more difficult to give 
every man his own in Shakespearian annotation. The amount 
of material accumulated is so great that the identity-origin of 
much important comment and suggestion is either wholly lost 
or so crushed out of shape as to be beyond recognition. 
Instructive significance perhaps attaches to this in editing the 
works of one who quietly made so much of materials gath- 
ered by others. But the list of authorities given on page xlvii 
will indicate the chief source of much that has gone to enrich 
the value of this edition. Especial acknowledgment is here 
made of the obligations to Dr. William Aldis Wright and 
Dr. Horace Howard Furness, whose work in the collation of 
Quartos, Folios, and the more important English and Amer- 
ican editions of Shakespeare has been of so great value to all 
subsequent editors and investigators. 

With regard to the general plan of this revision of Hud- 
son's Shakespeare, Professor W. P. Trent, of Columbia Uni- 
versity, has offered valuable suggestions and given important 
advice. 



CONTENTS 



INTRODUCTION 

Page 

I. Sources xi 

The Main Story xii 

Holinshed's Chronicles xii 

Minor Incidents and Details xii 

Hall's Chronicle and Stow's Annals . . xii 

Daniel's Civil Wars xiii 

II. Date of Composition xiii 

External Evidence xiv 

Internal. Evidence xv 

III. Early Editions xv 

Quartos xv 

Folios xvii 

Rowe's Editions xviii 

IV. Versification and Diction xviii 

Blank Verse xviii 

Alexandrines xx 

Rhyme xx 

Prose xxi 

V. Duration of Time xxi 

P. A. Daniel's Time Analysis xxii 

VI. Dramatic Construction and Development . . . xxiii 

Analysis by Act and Scene xxv 

VII. The Characters xxviii 

Richard xxviii 

BOLINGBROKE XXXV 

ix 



X THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

Page 

VIII. Stage History xl 

The Seventeenth Century xli 

The Eighteenth Century xlii 

The Nineteenth Century and Later . . . xlii 

IX. Historical Connections xliii 

Genealogical Table xliv 

Authorities (with Abbreviations) xlvii 

Chronological Chart xlviii 

Distribution of Characters lii 

THE TEXT 

Act I 3 

Act II 37 

Act III 70 

Act IV 98 

ActV 114 

Index of Words and Phrases 143 

FACSIMILE 
Title-Page of the First Quarto Frontispiece 



INTRODUCTION 



Note. In citations from Shakespeare's plays and nondramatic 
poems the numbering has reference to the Globe edition, except in 
the case of this play, where the reference is to this edition. 

I. SOURCES 

With that steady growth of national spirit which charac- 
terized the reign of Elizabeth, developed the great national 
drama. The full tide of this enthusiasm found immortal ex- 
pression in Shakespeare's ten history plays, " the most purely 
historical " of which, says Coleridge, 1 is King Richard the 
Second. Because of the political unrest of the times, in the 
later years of her reign Elizabeth was not without enemies 
who sought secretly to depose her, and minds of the students 
of the day turned naturally to the dethroned Richard. It 
was only natural, therefore, that Shakespeare should at this 
time choose Richard the Second for dramatic study. 

The leading events of the play and all the persons except 
the queen, the whole substance, action, and interest are purely 
historical, with only such heightening of effect, such vivid- 
ness of coloring, and such vital invigoration as poetry can 
add without marring or displacing the truth of history. The 
chief source of the letter and historical detail of the drama is 
Holinshed's Chronicles, which was also used by Shakespeare 
as the basis of his other English history plays. 

1 See Notes a?td Lectures upon Shakespeare. 
xi 



xii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

The Main Story 

Holinshed' s Chronicles} As in his other plays dealing 
with English history, Shakespeare derived the great body of 
his material for King Richard the Second from the Chronicles 
of England, Scotland, and Irelafid, of Raphael Holinshed 
(Holynshed, Hollynshed, Hollingshead, etc.) first published 
in two folio volumes in 1577, and " newlie augmented and 
continued" in 1 586-1 587. It is probably from this second 
edition that Shakespeare drew his details, for only in this 
does Holinshed mention the portent of the ' withering of the 
bay-trees ' which Shakespeare uses in II, iv, 8. In none of 
his dramas of English history has Shakespeare diverged so 
little in the thread of his narrative from Holinshed as in 
King Richard the Second, but this is because the interests of 
dramatic economy and artistic effectiveness demand little or 
nothing that is not presented in the ' source:' The chief dif- 
ferences are those of time and place, insignificant changes in 
the characters, and the introduction of new characters and 
incidents. 

Minor Incidents and Details 

1 . HalVs Chronicle a?id Stow's Annals. It is probable that 
The Union of the Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre 
and York, by Edward Hall, published in 1542, furnished 
Shakespeare with some of the minor details of King Richard 
the Second; and certain of the suggestions for the treatment 
of Mowbray may have come from Stow's (Stowe) Annales, 
or a Generate Chronicle of England from Brute until the 

1 In W. G. Boswell-Stone's Shakspere's Holinshed are given all 
the portions of the Chronicles which are of special interest to the 
Shakespeare student. 



INTRODUCTION xiii 

present yeare of Christ 1580. John Stow was one of the 
earliest and most diligent collectors of English antiquities, 
who, in addition to the preparation of several volumes of 
which the Annals was one, assisted in the continuation of 
Holinshed's Chro?iides. 

2. Daniel's Civil Wars. Entered in The Stationers' Regis- 
ters in October, 1594, were four volumes of an eight-volume 
historical poem by Samuel Daniel, entitled The Civile Wars 
between the two houses of Lancaster and Yorke, which present 
several striking parallels to Shakespeare's King Richard the 
Second and King Henry the Fourth. It is significant that in 
the instances in which Daniel's historical poem and King 
Richard the Second resemble each other they apparently 
differ from any known source. For example, both picture 
the child queen as a woman mature in years and in thought, 
both give to the queen an interview with Richard after his 
return from London; in both the triumph of Bolingbroke 
and the humiliation of Richard are brought to a climax in 
their ride into London together — in these and other minor 
respects differing from the facts as now generally accepted. 
But there is only conjecture as to which was composed the 
earlier and influenced the content of the other. (See below, 
Date of Composition.) 

II. DATE OF COMPOSITION 

The date of composition of King Richard the Second falls 
within 1597, the later time limit (ter?ni?ius ante quern), when 
the play was entered in The Stationers' Registers, and 1593, 
the earlier time limit {terminus post queni). The weight of 
evidence is in favor of 1593-159 4. 



Xiv THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

External Evidence 

King Richard the Second was mentioned by Francis Meres 
in the Palladis Tamia, Wits Treasury ; being the Second Part 
of Wits Commonwealth, published in 1598. Here Meres 
gives a list of twelve noteworthy Shakespeare plays in ex- 
istence at that time, and expressly refers to "Richard the 2." 

The suggestion that Shakespeare may have drawn on 
Daniel's Civil Wars for some of his minor details has been 
brought forward as bearing on the question of time of com- 
position, for three volumes of the four published in 1595 
(they were entered in 1594) relate exclusively to the closing 
events of the life of Richard the Second. If Shakespeare 
drew upon these, he could not have completed his work 
earlier than 1596, the year in which King Henry the Fourth 
was written. But the parallels found in the two works do 
not serve to throw any light on the question of precedence. 

Another consideration is much more to the point. Shake- 
speare, in strict keeping with the nature and purpose of his 
work, makes the queen, in mind, character, and deportment, 
a mature woman, although she was in reality a child of 
eleven. This and other departures from historical truth con- 
stitute a liberty of art which was in every way justifiable in 
a historical drama, and which Shakespeare never scrupled 
to use when the proper ends of dramatic representation could 
by this means be furthered. On the other hand, the plan of 
Daniel's poem, and also the bent of his mind, caused him to 
write for the most part with the accuracy of a chronicler, so 
that the fine vein of poetry scarcely had fair play, being over- 
much hampered by the rigidity of literal truth. Yet he repre- 
sents the queen not as in history, but as in Shakespeare's 



INTRODUCTION XV 

drama. Such deviations from fact, however justifiable in either 
case, seem more likely to have been original in the play than 
in the poem. The natural conclusion eliminates Daniel's 
account as a ' source,' and places the composition of King 
Richard the Second 'before the latter part of 1594. 

Internal Evidence 

Style and Diction. The internal evidence of style, the 
abundance of rhymes (one fifth of the whole play consisting 
of rhymed lines), the frequent passages of elaborated verbal 
trifling, the smooth-flowing current of the verse, and the 
relative lack of compactness of texture, make strongly in 
favor of as early a date as 1594, when the author was thirty 
years old. (See below, Versification and Diction.) 

III. EARLY EDITIONS 

Quartos 

King Richard the Second was entered in The Stationers' 
Registers at London, August 29, 1597, and was published 
anonymously some time that year with the following title- 
page : " THE I Tragedie of King Ri-|chard the se-|cond. | As 
it hath beene publikely acted | by the right Honourable the | 
Lorde Chamberlaine his Ser- | vants. | London | Printed by 
Valentine Simmes for Androw Wise, and | are to be sold at 
his shop in Paules church yard at | the signe of the Angel. | 
1597." This was the First Quarto edition, referred to in 
the textual notes of this edition as Q^ 

In 1598 the same text was issued again with " By William 
Shake-speare " on the title-page. This is known as the Second 
Quarto, Q 2 . 



xvi THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

The Third Quarto edition was brought out in 1608, one 
issue with the title-page bearing the words, " With new 
additions of the Parliament Sceane, and the deposing of 
King Richard." These additions comprise one hundred and 
sixty-five lines (IV, i, 154-318). 

There is substantial agreement among critics that the 
* additions ' were written with the rest of the play, for they 
are all of a piece with the surrounding portions ; there is 
nothing in the style, the matter, or the connection of them 
to create any suspicion of a different period of workmanship. 
And curiously enough the line, "A woeful pageant have we 
here beheld " (IV, i, 321), which is spoken by the Abbot and 
can refer only to the deposition scene, was retained in the 
First Quarto, thus furnishing indisputable evidence that the 
whole scene was a part of the original draft. The non- 
appearance of these lines in the two earlier Quartos is easily 
explained: Elizabeth was still on the throne, and the part 
that she had played in deposing her unhappy kinswoman, 
the beautiful Mary Queen of Scots, together with the fact 
that she was keenly conscious of the political unrest of the 
times, made the subject of deposition a hateful one. Thus 
in 1599 Sir John Hayward suffered imprisonment for pub- 
lishing The First Part of the Life and Raigne of Henrie Il/f 
extending to the end of the first yeare of his raigne, which 
related the deposing of Richard. It is therefore quite 
certain that no publisher would then have dared to issue 
Shakespeare's play with such a scene. 

Again, two years later (1601), to assist Essex in his at- 
tempt to raise an insurrection in London, accomplices pro- 
cured the acting of " the play of the deposing and killing of 
King Richard the Second " on the Saturday preceding the 



INTRODUCTION xvii 

unsuccessful upheaval. The object of the whole affair was 
" to excite the feelings of the populace by representing the 
abdication of an English sovereign on the stage." This com- 
paratively unimportant happening is significant in its bearing 
on the suppression by Shakespeare of a part of the fourth act 
which was necessary to the dramatic unity of the play, but 
which did not appear in published form until after the death 
of Elizabeth. 

The Fourth Quarto, Q 4 (1615), was a mere reprinting 
of the Third. A Fifth Quarto, Q 5 , printed in 1634, was 
based on the Second Folio. 

Folios 

King Richard the Second appeared in the First Folio, Fi, 
published in 1623, with the title The life and death of Ki?ig 
Richard the Second. It occupies pages 23 to 45 in the division 
of the book devoted to the ' Histories,' which are arranged 
in historical sequence beginning with King fohn. The First 
Folio is the famous volume in which all Shakespeare's col- 
lected plays (with the exception of Pericles, first printed in the 
Third Folio) were first given to the world. The text of this 
edition seems to have been based on the Fourth Quarto, but 
in it several passages, fifty lines in all, are unaccountably 
lacking. 

The Second Folio, F 2 (1632), the Third Folio, F 3 (1663, 
1664), and the Fourth Folio, F 4 (1685), show few variants 
in the text, and none of importance. It is in the Folios, not 
in the Quartos, that the play is divided into acts and scenes. 

The First Folio affords the most reliable text of the new 
additions, and the First Quarto of all the rest of the play. 
These have been made the basis of our text. 



xviii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

Rowe's Editions 

The first critical editor of Shakespeare's plays was Nicholas 
Rowe, poet laureate to George I. His first edition was issued 
in 1709 in six octavo volumes. In this edition Rowe, an ex- 
perienced playwright, marked the entrances and exits of the 
characters and introduced many stage directions. He also 
introduced the list of dramatis personam which has been made 
the basis for all later lists. A second edition in eight volumes 
was published in 1 7 1 4. Rowe followed very closely the text 
of the Fourth Folio, but modernized spelling, punctuation, 
and occasionally grammar. 

IV. VERSIFICATION AND DICTION 
Blank Verse 

King Richard the Second is written wholly in verse and for 
the most part in blank verse 1 — the unrhymed, iambic five- 
stress (decasyllabic) verse, or iambic pentameter, introduced 
into England from Italy by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, 
about 1540, and used by him in a translation of the second 
and fourth books of Vergil's sEneid. Nicholas Grimald ( TotteVs 
Miscellany, 1557) employed the measure for the first time in 
English original poetry, and its roots began to strike deep 
into British soil and absorb substance. It is peculiarly sig- 
nificant that Sackville and Norton should have used it as the 

1 The term ' blank verse ' was just coming into use in Shakespeare's 
day. It seems to have been used for the first time in literature in 
Nash's Preface to Greene's Menaphon, where we find the expression, 
" the swelling bumbast of bragging blanke verse." Shakespeare uses 
the expression three times, always humorously or satirically (see 
Much Ado About Nothing, V, ii, 32). 



INTRODUCTION XIX 

measure of Gorboduc, the first English tragedy (performed 
by "the Gentlemen of the Inner Temple" in 1561, and 
first printed in 1565). About the time when Shakespeare 
arrived in London the infinite possibilities of blank verse as 
a vehicle for dramatic poetry and passion were being shown 
by Kyd, and above all by Marlowe. Blank verse as used by 
Shakespeare is really an epitome of the development of the 
measure in connection with the English drama. In his earlier 
plays the blank verse is often similar to that of Gorboduc. 
The tendency is to adhere to the syllable-counting principle, 
to make the line the unit, the sentence and phrase coinciding 
with the line (end-stopped verse), and to use five perfect 
iambic feet to the line. In plays of the middle period, such 
as The Merchant of Ve?iice and As You Like It, written be- 
tween 1596 and 1600, the blank verse is more like that of 
Kyd and Marlowe, with less monotonous regularity in the 
structure and an increasing tendency to carry on the sense 
from one line to another with a syntactical or rhetorical pause 
at the end of the line (run-on verse, enjambemeni). Redun- 
dant syllables now abound, arid the melody is richer and 
fuller. In Shakespeare's later plays the blank verse breaks 
away from bondage to formal line limits, and sweeps all 
with it in freedom, power, and organic unity. 

The verse of King Richard the Second is more monoto- 
nously regular than that of the later plays ; it is less flexible 
and varied, less musical and sonorous, and it lacks the superb 
movement of the verse in Othello, The Winter's Tale, and 
The Tenipest. End-stopped, normally regular iambic pentam- 
eter lines are abundant but the metre is more flexible than 
the severely end-stopped verses of the earliest plays. Short 
lines are repeatedly used for interrupted and exclamatory 



xx THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

remarks, as in III, iv, 71 ; IV, i, 182 ; V, v, 104, etc. There 
are no weak endings and only four light endings, 1 the play 
in this respect resembling the earlier plays. 

Alexandrines 

While French prosodists apply the term ' Alexandrine ' 
only to a twelve-syllable line, with the pause after the sixth 
syllable, it is generally used in English to designate iambic 
six-stress verse, or iambic hexameter, of which we have ex- 
amples in IV, i, 19, 171, and V, iii, 42, 101. This was a 
favorite Elizabethan measure, and it was common in moral 
plays and the earlier heroic drama. English literature has 
no finer examples of this verse than the last line of each 
stanza of The Faerie Qiieen. In King Richard the Second 
are more than thirty Alexandrines. 

Rhyme 

Apart from the use of rhyme in songs, lyrics, and portions 
of masques (as in The Tempest, IV, i, 60-138), a progress 
from more to less rhyme is a sure index to Shakespeare's 
development as a dramatist and a master of expression. In 
the early Love's Labour's Lost are more than one thousand 
rhyming five-stress iambic lines ; in Julius Ccesar only thirty- 
four ; in The Te?npest only two ; in The Wi?iter's Tale not 
one. In King Richard the Second the extraordinary abun- 
dance of rhyme renders this play conspicuous not only among 

1 Light endings, as denned by Ingram, are such words as am, 
can, do, has, I, thoii, etc., on which " the voice can to a certain small 
extent dwell " ; weak endings are words like and, for, from, if, in, 
of, or, which " are so essentially proclitic . . . that we are forced to 
run them, in pronunciation no less than in sense, into the closest 
connection with the opening words of the succeeding line." 



INTRODUCTION xxi 

the histories but among all the early plays. Here the rhyme 
though not used with complete consistency is employed (i) to 
mark the close of speeches and scenes, as in I, i, 107-108, 
I, i, 204-205; (2) to point an epigram, as in II, i, 139-140; 
(3) to aid in expressing strong emotion, as in V, i, 85-87, 
V, v, 109-112. 

Prose 

Of recent years there have been interesting discussions of 
the question " whether we are justified in supposing that 
Shakespeare was guided by any fixed principle in his em- 
ployment of verse and prose, or whether he merely employed 
them, as fancy suggested, for the sake of variety and relief." * 
It is a significant fact that in King Richard the Second and 
many other early plays there is little or no prose, and that 
the proportion of prose to blank verse increases with the 
decrease of rhyme. 

V. DURATION OF TIME 

1 . Historic Time. The period of time covered by this play 
dates from April 29, 1398, just after the death of the Duke 
of Gloucester, to the beginning of March, 1400, when the 
body of Richard was brought to London. 

2. Dramatic Time. As represented on the stage the time 
of the play is fourteen days with intervals the length of 
which has not been determined with exactness. 

1 Professor J. Churton Collins, Shakespeare as a Prose Writer. 
See Delius, Die Prosa in Shakespeares Dramen (Shakespeare Jahr- 
buch, V, 227-273); Janssen, Die Prosa in Shakespeares Dramen; 
Professor Hiram Corson, An Introduction to the Study of Shake- 
speare, pages 83-98. 



xxii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

The following is P. A. Daniel's time analysis : ! 

Day i. — I, i. 

Interval (perhaps of about four and a half months). 
Day 2. — I, ii. 

Interval (Gaunt's journey to Coventry). 
Day 3. — I, iii. 

Interval (journey from Coventry to London). 2 
Day 4. — I, iv ; II, i. . 

Interval (a day or two). 
Day 5. — II, ii. 

Interval. 
Day 6. — II, iii. 

Interval. 
Day 7. — II, iv; III, i. 
Day 8. — III, ii. 

Interval. 
Day 9. — III, iii. 

Interval. 
Day 10. — III, iv. 

Interval. 
Day 11. — IV, i; V, i. 

Interval. 
Day 12. — V, ii, iii, iv. 

Interval. 
Day 13. — V, v. 

Interval. 
Day 14. — V, vi. 

1 New Shakspere Society Transactions, 1877-1879, pages 264-270. 

2 In the Tra?is actions, page 264, Daniel definitely indicates this 
interval, but does not include it in his summary on page 269. The 
omission was doubtless an oversight. 



INTRODUCTION xxiii 

VI. DRAMATIC CONSTRUCTION AND 
DEVELOPMENT 

In all the qualities of a work of art merely, or as an in- 
stance of dramatic architecture and delineation, King Richard 
the Second is much inferior to King Henry the Fourth. But 
the latter is a specimen of the mixed drama ; that is, its 
delineations are partly historical, partly ideal, its idealized 
characters being used as the vehicle of a larger moral history 
than would otherwise be compatible with the laws of dra- 
matic reason. In King Richard the Second, on the other 
hand, all the prominent delineations are historical ; with few 
exceptions no interest, no incidents, of any other kind are 
admitted : so that, as Coleridge has said, "it is perhaps the 
most purely historical of Shakespeare's dramas." And he 
justly argues that it is not merely the use of historical 
matter, but the peculiar relation which this matter bears to 
the plot, that makes a drama properly historical. Macbeth, 
for instance, has much of historical matter, yet it cannot 
fittingly be called a historical drama, because the history 
neither forms nor guides, but only subserves, the plot. Nor 
does the admission of matter that is not fact keep a drama 
from being truly historical, provided history orders and gov- 
erns the plot. Viewed in this larger way, both King Richard 
the Second and King Henry the Fourth are in the strictest 
sense historical plays; the difference between them being, 
that in the former the history furnishes the whole matter 
and order of the work, while in the latter it furnishes a 
part, and at the same time shapes and directs whatever is 
added by the creative imagination. Thus, in a purely his- 
torical drama, the history makes the plot ; in a mixed drama, 



xxiv THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

it directs the plot ; in such tragedies as King Lear and 
Macbeth, it subserves the plot. 

Especially noteworthy in Shakespeare's handling of his- 
torical material is his calmness and poise of judgment. In 
the bitter conflicts of factions and principles he allows the 
several persons to utter, in the extremest forms, their op- 
posing views without committing himself to any of them or 
betraying any disapproval of them. He holds the balance 
even between justice to the men and justice to the truth. 
The claims of legitimacy and of revolution, of divine right, 
personal merit, and public choice, the doctrines of the mo- 
narchical, the aristocratic, the popular origin of the state — 
all these are by turns urged in their most rational or most 
plausible aspects, but merely in the order and on the footing 
of dramatic propriety. 

At no time does Shakespeare play or affect to play the 
part of umpire between the wranglers : which of them has 
the truth, or the better cause — this he leaves to appear 
silently in the ultimate sum-total of results. And so imper- 
turbable is his fairness, so unswerving his impartiality, as 
almost to seem the offspring of a heartless and cynical indif- 
ference. Hence a French writer, Chasles, sets him down as 
" chiefly remarkable for a judgment so high, so firm, so un- 
compromising, that one is well-nigh tempted to impeach his 
coldness, and to find in this impassible observer something 
that may almost be called cruel towards the human race. In 
the historical pieces," he continues, " the picturesque, rapid, 
and vehement genius which produced them seems to bow 
before the higher law of a judgment almost ironical in its 
clear-sightedness. Sensibility to impressions, the ardent force 
of imagination, the eloquence of passion — these brilliant 



INTRODUCTION XXV 

gifts of nature which would seem destined to draw a poet 
beyond all limits, are subordinated in that extraordinary 
intelligence to a calm and almost deriding sagacity, that 
pardons nothing and forgets nothing." 

Both tragedy and comedy deal with a conflict between an 
individual force (which may be centered either in one character 
or in a group of characters acting as one) and environing cir- 
cumstances. In tragedy the individual (one person or a group) 
is overwhelmed ; in comedy the individual triumphs. In both 
tragedy and comedy five stages may be noted in the plot 
development: (i) the exposition, or introduction; (2) the 
complication, rising action, or growth ; (3) the climax, crisis, 
or turning point ; (4) the resolution, falling action, or con- 
sequence ; and (5) the denouement, catastrophe, 1 or conclu- 
sion. Let it not be thought for a moment that each of these 
stages is clearly differentiated. As a rule they pass insensibly 
into each other, as they do in life. 

Analysis by Act and Scene 2 

I. The Exposition, or Introduction (Tying of the Knot) 

Act I, Scene i. In this opening scene the important characters 
are introduced, the main action is begun at once, and the situation 
gradually explained. The keynote of the whole play — the contest 
and contrast between Richard, the usurped, and Bolingbroke, the 
usurper — is struck when Bolingbroke resists the wishes of Richard. 

1 "Catastrophe — the change or revolution which produces the 
conclusion or final event of a dramatic piece." — Johnson. 

2 " It must be understood that a play can be analyzed into very 
different schemes of plot. It must not be thought that one of these 
schemes is right and the rest wrong ; but the schemes will be better 
or worse in proportion as — while of course representing correctly 
the facts of the play — they bring out more or less of what ministers 
to our sense of design." — Moulton. 

v 



xxvi THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

II. The Complication, Rising Action, or Growth (Tying of 
the Knot) 

Act I, Scene ii. The fact of Richard's participation in Gloucester's 
death is forced into prominence, and thus the fate of the king is 
foreshadowed and Bolingbroke's act in the preceding scene explained. 

Act I, Scene Hi. Against the background of a mediaeval tourna- 
ment this scene is made to show how the uneasy conscience of 
Richard drives him to the dangerous expedient of banishment 
for both Bolingbroke and Norfolk. Bolingbroke is thus made an 
implacable and dangerous foe, and the complicating action of the 
play is forwarded. 

Act I, Scene iv. While this scene does not advance the action, the 
complication is strengthened in Richard's recognition of the popu- 
larity of Bolingbroke and in the demonstration of his own weak- 
nesses. Richard lays bare (i) his dislike and fear of Bolingbroke; 
(2) his disregard of the rights of his subjects, thus effectively alien- 
ating them ; (3) his unnatural indifference to Gaunt's appeal ; (4) the 
influence held over him by unscrupulous favorites. At the bedside 
of the dying Gaunt, Richard is seen at his worst — scornful, mocking, 
unrepentant. 

Act II, Scene i. The main plot is unfolded in Richard's forcing 
Bolingbroke into open rebellion, and the consequent winning to 
his side of much popular support. Further insight into Richard's 
character is afforded by the announcement of his unjust purpose of 
seizing Bolingbroke's inheritance. 

Act II, Scene ii. Here instead of attempting to create suspense, 
Shakespeare uses the queen's premonitions of evil as the means of 
forecasting the impending disaster. In the interest of dramatic 
economy the accomplishment of the revolution is hastened, and 
sympathetic attention is directed to Richard's bearing in misfortune. 

Act II, Scene Hi. In effective contrast to the last scene in which 
confusion and foreboding prevail, here is presented the quiet, sure 
advance of a strong man to his goal. 

Act II, Scene iv. In the short space of twenty-four lines is depicted 
the ruin of Richard's last hope. Through the dispersion of his army 
because of a rumor that he is dead, he is left without the means of 
accomplishing the purpose for which he left England. 



INTRODUCTION xxvii 

Act Iff, Scow i. This scene symbolizes what is to follow and 
shows the real strength and kingliness of Bolingbroke, who seizes 
and condemns to death Richard's favorites. 

Act III, Scene ii. By means of a series of minor events a minute 
delineation of Richard's character is presented, thus throwing light 
on his past conduct and furnishing the means of interpreting the 
future. Through numerous ' entrances ' Richard is shown oscillating 
between confident arrogance and utter despair. 

III. The Climax, Crisis, or Turning Point (the Knot Tied) 

Act III, Scene Hi. Here, in the decisive moment toward which all 
the action has been tending, occurs the virtual triumph of Boling- 
broke and the defeat of Richard, briefly stated in the king's own 
words, "Your own is yours, and I am yours, and all" (line 197). 
Though intensely dramatic, the scene unfolds no vulgar struggle, 
merely the reaction of character on character. 

IV. The Resolution, Falling Action, or Consequence (the 

Untying of the Knot) 

Act III, Scene iv. Through the bitter grief of the queen, the pity 
of the gardener, the patriotic resentment of the servant toward the 
king, the preceding scene is intensified. Like the fourth scene of 
the first act, this is a comment on the struggle, and the dramatic 
resolution is foreshadowed in the queen's speech at the close. 

Act IV, Scene i. The three events of this scene — the arraignment 
of Aumerle, the protest of Carlisle, the public surrender of Richard 
— are of great dramatic value in showing the significance of the 
resolution just effected. The tension from this point is slackened. 

Act V, Scene i. The parting between Richard and the queen, which 
is the first time they hold actual conversation together in the play, 
furnishes a characteristic instance of Shakespeare's use of the love 
motive to increase, by contrast, the dire effect of political tragedy. 

Act V, Scenes ii and Hi. In Bolingbroke's attitude toward Aumerle 
and his parents, the tolerance and firmness of the future king are 
displayed in dramatic contrast to the character of York. 

Act V, Scene iv. This short scene of eleven lines forecasts the 
death of Richard. 



xxviii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

Act V, Scene v. Final touches are here made to the portrait of 
Richard. In his monologue (lines 1-66) Richard's attitude toward 
his calamity is fantastic but shows him strangely unrepentant ; in 
the dialogue with his groom his personal charm shines out ; and in 
his death is added the one heroic touch to an unheroic monarch. 

V. Denouement, Catastrophe, or Conclusion (the Knot Untied) 

Act V, Scene vi. The last scene is less a triumph for Bolingbroke 
than a vague foreboding of the future. It " consists of three divi- 
sions, each in appearance contributing to seal the success of the new 
king. The conspiracy has been sternly put down ; the Abbot of 
Westminster, ' the grand conspirator,' has died ; and finally Richard, 
the ' buried fear,' has been removed. The last, though seemingly the 
climax in the ascending scale of triumph, at once changes the key 
to a tragic minor, and the drama closes on a solemn and bodeful 
note which leaves us mindful of Carlisle's prophecy that the 'woes 
are yet to come'" (Herford). It is interesting to note that it is 
Bolingbroke who starts the action in the first scene and who speaks 
the closing words of the last. 

VII. THE CHARACTERS 

In Shakespeare's delineations of historical characters may 
be seen a kind of poetical or psychological comparative 
anatomy. He reconstructs characteristic traits from a few 
fragments which would have escaped a perception less 
apprehensive and quick. Such is his fineness of faculty that 
from a mere detail he reproduces the entire mental, moral, 
and physical structure of the man to whom it belonged. 

Richard 

Richard, as presented in Shakespeare's full-length portrait, 
is among the strongest of his historical delineations. His 
character both in history and in the play is mainly that of a 
pampered, presumptuous voluptuary, who cannot harbor the 



INTRODUCTION xxix 

idea that the nation exists for any other purpose than to serve 
his pleasure, and who does not hesitate to scorn the legiti- 
mate cares and duties of the crown. All this has the effect 
of bringing his personal character into contempt even before 
his administration becomes unpopular. Hume describes him 
as " indolent, profuse, addicted to low pleasures, spending 
his whole time in feasting and jollity, and dissipating, in idle 
show, or in bounties to favorites of no reputation, that 
revenue which the people expected to see him employ in 
enterprises directed to public honour and disadvantage." 

In the first three acts Richard appears so altogether 
despicable that it seems hardly possible he should ever rally 
to his side any honest stirrings either of pity or of respect. 
He is at once crafty and credulous, indolent and arrogant, 
effeminate and aggressive ; a trifler while fortune smiles, a 
whimperer when she frowns. His utter falseness of heart in 
forwarding the combat, while secretly bent on preventing it ; 
his arbitrary freakishness in letting it proceed till the com- 
batants are on the point of crossing their lances, and then 
peremptorily arresting it ; his petulant tyranny in passing 
the sentence of banishment on both men, and his nervous, 
timid apprehensiveness in exacting from them an oath not 
to have any correspondence during their exile; his mean, 
scoffing insolence to the broken-hearted Gaunt, his ostenta- 
tious scorn of the dying man's reproofs, his impious levity 
in wishing him a speedy death ; and his imperious, headlong 
contempt of justice, and even of his own plighted faith, in 
seizing the Lancaster estates to his own use before the 
" time-honoured Lancaster" (I, i, i) is in the grave — these 
things mark him out as a thorough profligate, who glories in 
spurning whatever is held most sacred by all true men. 



XXX THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

Since Richard scorns strong and independent supports, he 
takes to climbing-plants that finally pull him to the ground. 
Such being his disposition, he seeks the society of frivolous 
and incompetent men, and so draws about him a set of 
spendthrift minions, who stop his ear with flatteries, and in- 
flame his blood with wanton fancies. It is largely the com- 
panionship of such men that makes him insolent and deaf 
to sober counsel, and draws him into a shallow aping of 
foreign manners and fashions. As revealed in the first part of 
King Henry the Fourth (III, ii), among his other traits of 
wantonness is a restless haunting of public places and scenes 
of promiscuous familiarity whereby he makes himself " stale 
and cheap to vulgar company," so that, even "when he 
has occasion to be seen, he is but as the cuckoo is in June, 
heard, not regarded." This is not, to be sure, brought out 
in King Richa?'d the Second and is perhaps rightly withheld, 
lest it should too much turn away our sympathies from the 
king in his humiliation and sorrow. But it is aptly urged by 
Bolingbroke in the following speech, when he remonstrates 
with Prince Harry against that conduct which seems likely 
to bring him into a similar predicament : 

The skipping king, he ambled up and down 

With shallow jesters and rash bavin wits, 

Soon kindled and soon burnt ; carded his state, 

Mingled his royalty with capering fools, 

Had his great name profaned with their scorns 

And gave his countenance, against his name, 

To laugh at gibing boys and stand the push 

Of every beardless vain comparative, 

Grew a companion to the common streets, 

Enfeoff'd himself to popularity ; 

That, being daily swallow'd by men's eyes, 



INTRODUCTION xxxi 

They surfeited with honey and began 

To loathe the taste of sweetness, whereof a little 

More than a little is by much too much. 

[i Henry IV, III, ii, 60-73] 

Notwithstanding all that may be justly brought forward 
against Richard, he had, without doubt, the mental, moral, 
and practical gifts of a well-rounded man, and endowments 
of both strength and beauty ; but there seemed to be no 
principle of cohesion among them. He thus moves alto- 
gether by fits and starts, because the tempering and moder- 
ating power of judgment is wanting. A thought strikes him, 
and whirls him far off to the right, where another thought 
strikes him, and whirls him as far off to the left. And so he 
goes pitching and zigzagging hither and thither. This is not 
necessarily constitutional with him, but mainly the result of 
wrong education and wrong living. A long indulgence in 
voluptuous arts and the poison of wanton associates have 
dissolved his self-restraint, inducing a habit of setting pleasure 
before duty, and of making reason wait on passion. This 
wrought into his texture a certain chronic sleaziness which 
rendered him more and more the sport of contradictory 
impulses and humors. Professor Dowden justly observes 1 
that, without any genuine kingly power, he has a feeling 
of what kingly power must be ; without any veritable re- 
ligion, he has a pale shadow of religiosity. Indeed, every- 
thing about him is shadowy. His mind lives in a sort 
of phantom-world, and cannot seem to distinguish fancy 
from fact. 

Richard is not without ability to think clearly and justly, 
but he cannot for any length of time maintain a reasonable 
1 Shakspere : A Critical Study of his Mind and Art. 



xxxil THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

train of thought. Hence his discourse presents a strange 
medley of sense and puerility, and we often have a gem of 
thought or a beautiful image followed by a childish platitude. 
So too he is lofty and abject, pious and profane, bold and 
shrinking by turns, and is ever running through the gamut 
of sharps and flats. His every feeling was, as Coleridge 1 
says, " abandoned for its direct opposite upon the pressure 
of external accident." This supreme trait of weakness is most 
tellingly displayed in his dialogue with Carlisle, Aumerle, 
Salisbury, and Scroop, just after his return from Ireland 
when upon learning how Bolingbroke is carrying all before 
him, he vibrates so rapidly between the extremes of un- 
grounded hope and unmanly despair. His spirit soars in 
the faith that, for every man in arms with Bolingbroke, 
" God for his Richard hath in heavenly pay a glorious 
angel" (III, ii, 60-61). But when, a moment after, he 
finds that, so far from angels mustering to his aid, even 
men are deserting him, all his faith instantly vanishes in 
pale-faced terror and dismay. 

He is ever inviting hostile designs by openly anticipating 
them, or by futile or ill-judged precautions against them, as 
when he swears the two banished dukes not to plot or join 
hands against him during their exile. Again, when Boling- 
broke comes, avowedly and with just cause, to reclaim his 
inheritance, he does not plan to grasp the crown till Richard's 
weak-kneed concession and acquiescence put it in his mind, 
and fairly woo him to it. Thus the apprehension of being 
deposed, instead of stiffening up his manhood, at once 
weakens his intellect and spirit. When a show of bold and 
resolute self-assertion, or a manly and stout-hearted defiance, 

1 See Notes and Lectures upon Shakespeare. 



INTRODUCTION xxxiii 

would outdare and avert the peril, he simply quails and 
cowers. His deprecating of the blow before it comes is a 
tacit pledge of submission. He himself tells Bolingbroke, 
" they well deserve to have, that know the strong'st and 
surest way to get" (III, iii, 200-201). 

Perhaps the most obvious point in Richard's character is 
that the prospect of adversity or distress, instead of kindling 
any strain of manhood in him, or of having a bracing effect 
upon his courage, only melts his spirit into a kind of senti- 
mental pulp. Suffering does not even develop the virtue of 
passive fortitude in him : at its touch he abandons himself 
to a course of passionate weakness. He is so steeped in 
sentimentalism that even in his sorrow he makes a luxury 
of woe itself. He hangs over his griefs, hugs them, nurses 
them, buries himself in them, as if the sweet agony were to 
him a glad refuge from the stings of self-reproach, or a wel- 
come release from the exercise of manly thought. Thus he 
becomes a moralizing day-dreamer, spending his wits in a 
sort of holiday of poetical, self -brooding tearfulness. 

It is also to be noted that in his reverse of fortune Richard 
is altogether self-centered and so absorbed in self-pity that 
he has no thought to spare for those whom his fall has 
dragged down into ruin with him. This is part of his gen- 
eral character, which, to quote Coleridge, 1 is that of " a mind 
deeply reflective in its misfortunes, but wanting the guide to 
all sound reflection — the power of going out of himself, 
under the conduct of a loftier reason than could endure to 
dwell upon the merely personal." 

In this respect, one may well be tempted to run a parallel, 
as Hazlitt has done, between Richard the Second and Henry 

1 See Notes and Lectures upon Shakespeare. 



Xxxiv THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

the Sixth as drawn by Shakespeare. The two kings closely re- 
semble each other in a certain weakness of character border- 
ing on effeminacy, and this resemblance is made especially 
clear by their similarity of state and fortune. Richard is as 
selfish as he is weak, and weak partly because of his selfishness. 
He reads men and things altogether through the medium of 
his own wishes and desires, and because his thoughts do not 
rise out of self, and are ever concerned with general truth, 
his course of life runs tearingly a-clash with the laws and 
conditions of his place. With Henry, on the other hand, dis- 
interestedness is pushed to the degree of an infirmity. He 
seems to perceive and grasp truth the more willingly where 
it involves a sacrifice of his personal interests and rights. 
But a man, especially a king, cannot be wise for others, un- 
less he be so for himself. Thus Henry's weakness seems to 
spring in some degree from an excessive disregard of self. 
He permits the laws to suffer, and in them the people, partly 
because he cannot vindicate them without making them sub- 
serve his own interests. And when others break their oaths 
to him, he blames his own remissness as having caused them 
to wrong themselves. 

But Richard is at least felt to be the victim as well as the 
author of wrong ; and Shakespeare evidently did not mean 
that the wrongs he has done should lie so heavy upon us as 
to kill all pity for the wrong he suffers. As the scene shifts 
" from Richard's night to Bolingbroke's fair day," our sym- 
pathies are deeply moved for the wretched monarch, partly 
because the spectacle of fallen greatness, of humiliation and 
distress, however merited, is a natural object of commiseration, 
partly because honest pity naturally draws other sentiments 
to it. The heart must be hard indeed that does not respond to 



INTRODUCTION xxxv 

the pathos of York's account of the discrowned monarch's 

ride into London : 

No man cried ' God save him ! ' 
No joyful tongue gave him his welcome home ; 
But dust was thrown upon his sacred head ; 
Which with such gentle sorrow he shook off, 
His face still combating with tears and smiles, 
(The badges of his grief and patience) 
That had not God for some strong purpose steel'd 
The hearts of men, they must perforce have melted, 
And barbarism itself have pitied him. [V, ii, 28-36] 

And it is rather surprising how much he redeems himself 
in our thoughts by his manly outburst of resentment in 
the Parliament scene, when the sneaking Northumberland 
so meanly admonishes him to " ravel out " his " weav'd-up 
follies" (IV, i, 228-229). Then, too, his faults and infirmi- 
ties are so much those of our common humanity that 
even through them he creeps into our affections, and spins 
round us the ties of brotherhood. 

BOLINGBROKE 

In collision with such a compact, close-knit character as 
Bolingbroke, it is no wonder that the stumbling, loose-jointed 
Richard should soon go to pieces. In one of his paroxysms 
of regal conceit, he flatters himself that " not all the water 
in the rough rude sea can wash the balm from an anointed 
king" (III, ii, 54-55). But his fate is a solemn warning 
that even a king can, by persistent misgovernment, wash 
away the anointment of his own consecration and effectu- 
ally discrown himself. Richard thought to stand secure in 
the strength of his divine right, and would not see how this 
might be practically annulled by misuse. By not respecting 



xxxvi THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

his great office, he taught the people to despise him, and 
set them to longing for a ruler who would be a king in 
soul as well as in title. Thus Richard finds himself hope- 
lessly unkinged in an unequal struggle with a king by nature 
and merit. 

Bolingbroke is obviously the moving and controlling spirit 
of the drama. Everything waits upon his firm and tranquil 
will, and responds to his silent purpose. He starts the action, 
shapes its whole course, and ties up all its lines at the close, 
he himself riding, in calm and conscious triumph, the whirl- 
wind he has helped to raise. Bold, crafty, humble, and aspir- 
ing, he is full of energy, yet has all his forces so thoroughly 
in hand that he is never mastered by them. He spreads 
himself by deeds, not by talk ; plans industriously, but says 
nothing about it. Neither friends nor enemies know what 
he is thinking of or striving for, until his thoughts have ac- 
complished their ends. Consequently, throughout the play 
he remains an enigma both to the other dramatis personae 
and to the audience. 

At once ardent and self -restrained, far-sighted, firmly 
poised, always eying his mark steadily, and ever working 
towards it stealthily, he knows perfectly how to bide his 
time. He sees the opportunity clearly while it is coming, 
and seizes it promptly when it has come, but all so quietly 
as to seem the mere servant of events, and not at all the 
shaper of them. He is undoubtedly ambitious of the crown, 
expects to have it, means to get it, and frames his action to 
that end. But he builds both the ambition and the expecta- 
tion on his knowledge of Richard's character and his own 
political insight. Reading the signs of the time with a states- 
man's eye, he knows that things are hastening towards a 



INTRODUCTION xxxvii 

crisis in the state. He also knows that they will be apt 
to make an end the sooner if left to their natural course. 
The truth is not, after all, so much that he forces the crown 
from Richard, as that he lets Richard's fitful, jerking im- 
potence shake it into his hand. It must be acknowledged, 
however, that he takes, and knows he is taking, just the 
right way to stimulate Richard's convulsive zigzaggery into 
fatal action. 

Bolingbroke, throughout the play, appears possessed of 
qualities at once attractive and commanding. In the first 
part of King Henry the Fourth (I, iii, 241) the tempestuous 
Hotspur denounces him as a " vile politician." A politician 
he is indeed, but he is much more than that. He is a con- 
scious adept and a willing practicer in the ways of popularity. 
But if there is much of artfulness in his condescension, there 
is much of genuineness too. He knows that the strength of 
the throne must lie in having the hearts of the people knit 
to it, and he believes that the tribute of a winning address, 
or of gracious and obliging behavior, may be honestly and 
wisely paid in exchange for their honest affection. He is a 
master of just that proud complaisance and benignant lofti- 
ness, that happy mixture of affability and reserve, which 
readily gains popular confidence and respect. But in his 
courtship of the people he does not for an instant forget 
that their love will keep the longer and the better for being 
so seasoned with reverence as to stop short of familiarity. 
He therefore seldom appears before them, and when he 
does he sees to it that their eyes are glad of the sight but 
are not glutted, and that their love of the man in no measure 
melts down their awe of the prince. The way he sweetens 
himself into their hearts by smiling and bowing a gracious 



xxxvni THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

farewell upon them, when leaving for his place of exile, is 
best illustrated in Richard's description : 

How he did seem to dive into their hearts 

With humble and familiar courtesy, 

What reverence he did throw away on slaves, 

Wooing poor craftsmen with the craft of smiles 

And patient underbearing of his fortune, 

As 'twere to banish their affects with him. 

Off goes his bonnet to an oyster-wench ; 

A brace of draymen bid God speed him well, 

And had the tribute of his supple knee, 

With ' Thanks, my countrymen, my loving friends.' 

[I, iv, 25-34] 

Bolingbroke's departure is with the bearing of a conscious 
victor. He knows that the hearts of the people are going 
with him, and that his power at home will strike its roots 
the deeper for the tyranny which forces him abroad, where 
he must sigh his " English breath in foreign clouds, eating 
the bitter bread of banishment" (III, i, 20-21). From that 
moment, he sees that the crown is his, and the inspiration 
of his vision is one cause of his throwing such winning bland- 
ness and compliance into his parting salutations. On coming 
back to reclaim his plundered inheritance, instead of waiting 
for a formal settlement of rights and titles, no sooner is he 
landed than he quietly assumes the functions, and goes to 
doing the works, of sovereignty, while disclaiming the office 
and all pretensions to it. In their long experience of a king 
without kingliness, the people have had enough of the name 
without the thing, so Bolingbroke proceeds to enact the thing 
without the name. In this way he puts into their hearts the 
sentiment of loyalty, and his loftiness of spirit gives to the 
title its old deamess and luster, at the same time pointing 



INTRODUCTION xxxix 

him out as the rightful wearer of it. Being thus a king in 
fact, the sentiments that have been wont to go with the 
crown slowly and silently center upon him. Whether Boling- 
broke consciously designs all this may indeed be questioned, 
but such is clearly the natural climax of the course he 
pursues. 

Bolingbroke's bearing towards the lords who gather round 
him is not less remarkable than his attitude toward the popu- 
lace. During their long ride together, he relieves the tedious- 
ness of the journey by such graciousness that he wins and 
fastens them to his cause, yet without so committing him- 
self as to give them any power over him. The Percys, from 
the importance of their aid, evidently reckon upon being a 
power behind the throne greater than the throne ; but they 
are not long in finding they have mistaken their man. So 
in the deposition scene, when the insolent Northumberland 
thinks to rule the crestfallen Richard by dint of browbeating, 
Bolingbroke quietly overrules him. He does this so much in 
the spirit of one born to command as to make it evident that 
the reign of favoritism is at an end. He is not unmindful 
that those who have engaged in rebellion to set him up 
may do the same again to pull him down. Therefore he lets 
them know that, instead of being his master, they have given 
themselves a master in him, and that if he has used their 
services in establishing his throne, he has done so as their 
king, and not as their dependent. He wins admiration by 
his magnanimity to the brave old Bishop of Carlisle, whose 
honest, outspoken, uncompromising loyalty to Richard draws 
from him a reproof, but in language so restrained and tem- 
perate as to show that he honors the man much more than 
he resents the act. The same nobleness of spirit, or, at least, 



xl THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

politic generosity, is shown again in his declared purpose 
of recalling Norfolk and reinstating him in his lands and 
honors, and perhaps still more in the scene where he 
pardons Aumerle, and where, while the old Duke and 
Duchess of York are pleading, the one against, the other 
for, their son's life, he gently plays with the occasion but 
finally speaks the word that binds all three hearts indis- 
solubly to him. 

All through the fourth and fifth acts, Bolingbroke, sparing 
of words, prompt and vigorous, yet temperate and prudent, 
makes a forcible contrast to Richard's violent, imbecile 
tyrannizing in the first and second. As for the murder of 
Richard, this is a wretched climax, but there is the less need 
of remarking upon it, since Bolingbroke's professed abhor- 
rence of the deed and remorse for having hinted it, whether 
or not sincere, sufficiently mark it out for reprobation. The 
immediate cause of it is the conspiracy for restoring the 
deposed king, which has cost the lives of several men. And 
the fact that Richard's life thus holds Bolingbroke in con- 
stant peril of assassination amply explains why the latter 
should wish the ground and motive for such plots removed, 
though it may not in the least excuse the means used for 
attaining this end. The source of all these evils lies in the 
usurpation, and for this Richard is quite as much to blame as 
Bolingbroke. 

VIII. STAGE HISTORY 

A hero who is neither a deep-dyed villain nor a full-blooded 
hero is seldom to the popular taste. Richard the Second, 
both in life and in Shakespeare's dramatization, was only a 
weakling, demanding neither hatred nor admiration, and it 



INTRODUCTION xli 

is little wonder that the play has never been a great favorite 
on the stage except in the early seventeenth century. 

The Seventeenth Century 

The popularity of the tragedy in Shakespeare's time is 
indicated by its appearance in five Quarto editions, for only 
three of Shakespeare's plays were published five times and 
only sixteen out of the thirty-seven appeared at all in Quarto. 
As explained elsewhere (see above, Sources) the later years 
of Elizabeth's reign were full of unrest and political dis- 
turbances, and the subject of deposition was one uppermost 
in the minds of many. The political history of Richard's 
reign, which is of little interest to us to-day, engaged the 
eager attention of Shakespeare's contemporaries. Of the 
Third Quarto, published in 1608, some of the copies have 
a title-page including the statement, "As it hath been lately 
acted by the Kinges Majesties seruantes, at the Globe." 
This indicates a revival of the play in the early years of 
the reign of James I. It was in September of this same 
year (1608) that on the ship of a Captain William Keeling, 
then near the coast of Sierra Leone, performances are said 
to have been given of both King Richard the Second and 
Hamlet} 

A play entitled The Sicilian Usurper by Nahum Tate, 
poet laureate in the reign of William III, was produced at 
the Theatre Royal in 1681. This was in reality an adapta- 
tion of Shakespeare's King Richard the Second, and although 
the dramatis personam appeared under changed names and 

1 References to this effect appear in Reeling's journal as pub- 
lished by the Hakluyt Society, 1849, i n Narratives of Voyages towards 
the North- West. 



xlii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

much of the conduct of Richard was so modified that every 
scene was " full of respect to Majesty, and the dignity of 
Courts, not one altered passage but what breathes loyalty," 
it gave offense and was stopped after two performances. 

The Eighteenth Century 

An adaptation of Theobald was twice produced in London, 
in 17 18 and in 1738, the latter performance occurring in the 
reign of George II, whose foreign policy was being attacked 
by the prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole. The audiences 
were quick to see the likeness between the thwarting of 
Richard's plans for a series of French campaigns and 
Walpole's interference with King George's desire for a 
war with Spain, and the play soon fell into disfavor. Both 
Francis Gentleman and James Goodhall prepared versions 
of the tragedy ; that of Gentleman was given at Bath in 
1754, but while Goodhall in 1772 published his adaptation 
at Manchester, he seems not to have been successful in his 
attempt to secure its production by Garrick. 

The Nineteenth Century and Later 

Edmund Kean's attempted revival in 18 15 won the 
praise of Hazlitt. Not until 1857 was a notable produc- 
tion given in London, this being a series of performances 
by Charles Kean, who arranged the play with an elaborate 
staging. Walter Pater * speaks enthusiastically of Kean's 
production and acting : u In the painstaking revival of King 
Richard the Second by the late Charles Kean, those who 
were young thirty years ago were afforded much more than 
Shakespeare's play could ever have been before — the very 

1 Appreciations, with an Essay 071 Style. 



INTRODUCTION xliii 

person of the king based on the stately old portrait in West- 
minster Abbey, ' the earliest extant contemporary likeness of 
any English sovereign,' the grace, the winning pathos, the 
sympathetic voice of the player, the tasteful archaeology 
confronting vulgar modern London with a scenic production, 
for once really agreeable, of the London of Chaucer. In the 
hands of Kean the play became like an exquisite performance 
on the violin." 

Both Junius Booth and Edwin Booth appeared in this 
tragedy about the middle of the century. Sir Henry Irving 
in 1898, at a cost of over thirty thousand dollars, prepared 
an elaborate and historically accurate production, for which 
the celebrated Edwin A. Abbey painted scenery and designed 
costumes; but because of Irving's ill health the play was 
never presented. The tragedy has been popular in Ger- 
many, two hundred performances having been given in 
twenty-five years. 

Since the close of the nineteenth century several attempts 
have been made in England to revive interest in Shake- 
speare's English history plays. Of F. R. Benson's perform- 
ances both at London and at Stratford his King Richard 
the Second was the most popular. Sir Herbert Beerbohm 
Tree's revival in 1903 was called "a gorgeous series of 
pictures and pageants." 

IX. HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS 

The genealogical table on pages xliv and xlv gives the 
more important historical characters of King Richard the 
Second and shows in what other plays of Shakespeare they, 
their ancestors, or their descendants, are either mentioned or 
appear as dramatis personae. 



HISTORICAL 













Edward III 










1327-1377 










H 5 


Edward Wil 


liam Lionel 




Philippa ~ (3) Catharine Swynford = 


the Black d. 


335 Duke of Clar- 




Roet (?) 




Prince 


ence 
d. 1369 




Geoffrey 




Duke of 


1 


Aquitaine 
d. 1376 






Chaucer (?) 


Thomas Ralph Joan 
Beaufort Neville = Beaufort 


(1) Elizabeth 




1 


H 5 


de Burgh 




Thomas 


Earl of Earl of 




.1 




Chaucer 


Dorset West- 


Joan of 


Philippa 




= 


Duke of more- 


Kent (I) the 


= 




Matilda 


Exeter land 


Fair Maid 


Edmund 




Burghersh 


d. 1425 d. 1425 


1 


Mortimer 


Michael 






H5 H4 12 H 5 


RICHARD II 


Earl of 


de la Pole 








1377-1399 


March 


Earl of 








R2 




Suffolk 








— 


Anne Morti- 


d. 1415 








(1) Anne of 


mer 


H 5 








Bohemia 


(See descend- 


1 








(2) Isabella 


ants of Ed- 


(3) William 








of France 


mund Langley 


de la Pole 


= Alice 


= (2) Thomas Montague 


R2 


Duke of York) 


Earl of 

Suffolk 

exc. 1450 

H6i 




Earl of Salisbury 
d. 1428 
H 5 

Charles de la Bret ~|o 
Constable of France 
k.A. 1415 


Signs ane 


Abbreviatio 


NS IN 






H 5 



the Tables 



I = direct descent from 

= = married to 

~ = brother or sister 
H^, = brother or sister of the half blood 

d. = died 
exc.= executed 

k.= killed 
k.A.= killed at Agincourt 

R2 = one of the dramatis personam in Richard II 
R3= do. Richard III 

H 4 » = do. 1 Henry IV 

H 4 2 = do. 2 Henry IV 

H6 1 = do. / Henry VI 

H6 2 = do. 2 Henry VI 



H63= do. 3 Henry VI 




Hs= do. Henry V 


(2) Owen Tudor = 


KJ= do. King John 


1 




Edmund Tudor 


Italics indicate that the person is only mentioned in 


I 


the play. Numerals in parentheses before a name 


Henry Tudor Earl of Richmond 


indicate a first, second, or third marriage. Nu- 


HENRY VII TUDOR 


merals after a king's reign indicate the dates of 


1485-1509 


his reign. 


H6 3 R 3 



xli 



CONNECTIONS 



Philippa of Hainault 
d. 1369 



I 
John of 
Gaunt 
Duke of 
Lancaster 
d. 1399 
R2 

(2) Constance of 

Castile 

(1) Blanche of 

Lancaster 

Chaucer's 

' Duchesse ' ? 

d. 1369 



Henry 

Bolingbroke 

Earl of Derby 

Duke of Hereford 

Duke of Lancaster 

HENRY IV 

LANCASTER 

1399-1413 

R2 H4 12 

(2) Joan of Navarre 

d. 1437 
(1) Mary de Bohun 

d. 1394 



I 

Edmund Langley 

Duke of York 

d. 1402 

R2 



~ (1) Isabella of 
Castile, d. 1393 



:(2) Joan of Kent (II) 

Duchess of York 

R2 

(3) Henry, 3 Baron 

Scrope of Masham 

Lord Scroop 

exc. 1415 

H S 



Thomas 

Duke of Gloucester 

d. 1397 



I 

Edward 

Earl of 

Rutland 

Duke of 

AUMERLE 

Duke of 

York 
k.A. 1415 
R2 H5 



Richard 

Earl of 

Cambridge 

exc. 1415 

H S 

Anne 
Mortimer 

I 

Richard 

Plantagenet 

Duke of 

York 

d. 1460 

H6J23 

1 



I 
Constance 

Thomas 

Despenser 

d. 1400 

Isabella 

Richard 
Beauchamp 

Earl of 

Warwick 

d.^39 



I 
EDWARD IV 
1461-1483 
R3 H6 23 

Elisabeth 

I 3 



Edmund 

Earl of 

Rutland 

H63 



I 
George 
Duke of 
Clarence 
d. 1479 
H63 R 3 



RICHARD III 

1483-1485 
H6 2 3 R 3 



Henry of 

Monmouth 

' Prince Hal' 

Duke of Lancaster 

HENRY V 

1413-1422 

H4H5 

KATHARINE 

OF FRANCE 

d.M 37 

HENRY VI 

1422-1471 
H6 1 " 



Edward of Wales Richard 

EDWARD V Duke of York 
R3 R 3 

T 



Thomas 

Duke of 

Clarence 

k. 1421 



John 

Duke of 

Bedford 

Regent of 

France 

d- 143S 

H 4 H 5 H6 1 



Humphrey 
' Good Duke 
Humphrey ' 

Duke of 
Gloucester 

d. 1447 
H4 1 H5 H6 12 



xlv 



AUTHORITIES 

(With the more important abbreviations used in the notes) 

Qi = First Quarto, 1597. 
Q 2 = Second Quarto, 1598. 
Q 3 = Third Quarto, 1608. 
Q 4 = Fourth Quarto, 161 5. 
Q 5 = Fifth Quarto, 1634. 
Qq = the five Quartos, 1 597-1 634. 
Fi = First Folio, 1623. 
F 2 = Second Folio, 1632. 
F 3 = Third Folio, 1663, 1664. 
F 4 = Fourth Folio, 1685. 
Ff = all the seventeenth century Folios. 
Rowe = Rowe's editions, 1709, 17 14. 
Pope = Pope's editions, 1723, 1728. 
Theobald = Theobald's editions, 1733, 1740. 
Hanmer = Hanmer's edition, 1744. 
Johnson = Johnson's edition, 1765. 
Capell = Capell's edition, 1768. 
Malone = Malone's edition, 1790. 
Steevens = Steevens's edition, 1793. 

Collier = J. P. Collier's (second) edition, 1858. 
Globe = Globe edition (Clark and Wright), 1864. 
Dyce = Dyce's (third) edition, 1875. 
Delius = Delius's (fifth) edition, 1882. 
Camb = Cambridge (third) edition (W. A.Wright), 1891. 

Clar = Clarendon Press edition (W.A.Wright). 
Verity = A. W. Verity's Pitt Press edition. 
Herford = C. H. Herford's Eversley edition. 
Abbott = E. A. Abbott's A Shakespearian Grammar. 
Bradley = A. C. Bradley's Shakespearean Tragedy, 1904. 
Cotgrave = Cotgrave's Dictionarie of the French and English 

Tongues, 161 1. 
Schmidt = Schmidt's Shakespeare Lexicon. 
Skeat = Skeat's An Etymological Dictionary. 
Murray = A New English Dictionary {The Oxford Dictionary). 
Holinshed = Holinshed's Chronicles (second edition), 1 586-1587. 



xlvii 



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DISTRIBUTION OF CHARACTERS 

In this analysis are shown the acts and scenes in which the char- 
acters (see Dramatis Personae, page 2) appear, with the number of 
speeches and lines given to each. 

Note. Parts of lines are counted as whole lines. 







NO. OF 


NO. OF 






NO. OF 


NO. OF 






SPEECHES 


LINES 






SPEECHES 


LINES 


King 


I,i 


13 


57 


AlJMERI.E 


I, iii 


3 


5 




1, iii 


12 


74 




I, iv 


3 


15 




I, iv 


7 


40 




III, ii 


8 


12 




II, i 


13 


4i 




III, iii 


2 


3 




I II, li 


12 


146 




IV, i 


8 


26 




III, iii 


9 


'05 




V, ii 


7 


ri 




IV, i 


16 


134 




V, iii 


7 


13 




V, i 
V, v 


8 
8 

98 


63 
96 

756 






"38 


85 










Mowbray 


I, i 


7 


83 


Gaunt 


I,i 


4 


8 




I, iii 


6 


_^? 




I, ii 


4 


16 






13 


135 




I, iii 


11 


62 












II, i 


9 


106 














28 


192 


Surrey 


IV, i 


3 


10 


York 


II, i 


8 


74 












II, ii 


4 


4« 


Salisbury 


II, iv 


2 


9 




II, iii 


6 


49 




III, ii 


1 


1 1 




III, i 
III, iii 


4 


2 
13 






3 


20 




IV, i 


3 














V, ii 


T 9 


70 








8 




V, iii 


9 


28 


Berkeley 


II, iii 


2 






















54 


288 


















Bushy 


I, iv 


2 


4 


PiOLINGBROKE 


I, i 


5 


59 




II, ii 


10 


33 




I, iii 


16 


78 




III, i 


1 


2 




II, iii 


1 1 


55 






— 


— 




III, i 


3 


38 






'3 


39 




III, iii 


10 


55 












IV, i 


21 


39 












V, iii 


iS 


55 


Bagot 


II, ii 


4 


9 




V, vi 


6 


.33 




IV, i 




13 






















90 


412 






6 


22 



Hi 



DISTRIBUTION OF CHARACTERS 



liii 







NO. OF 


NO. OF 






NO. of 


NO. OF 






SPEECHES 


LINES 






speeches 


LINES 


Gkeen 


I, iv 


! 


5 


Carlisle 


III, ii 


2 


J 4 




II, ii 


8 


25 




IV, i 


4 


49 




III, i 


i 

IO 


32 






6 


63 










Abbot 


IV, i 


2 


10 


Northumber- 


II, i 


1 1 


51 










land 


II, iii 


ii 


35 












1 1 r , iii 


6 


30 


Marshal 


I, iii 


IO 


25 




IV, i 


6 


15 












V, i 
V, vi 


3 


7 
_5 
J 43 


Scroop 


III, ii 


5 


3i 










Exton 


V, iv 
V, vi 


3 


IO 

_5 


Percy 


II, iii 


6 


21 






— 




III, iii 


2 


8 






5 


1 5 




IV, i 


I 


5 












V, iii 
V, vi 


2 
12 


6 

__5 
45 


Captain 
Queen 


II, iv 

II, i 
II, ii 


2 

8 


15 
39 


Ross 


II, i 


9 


20 




1 1 1 , iv 


9 


43 




II, iii 


I 


1 




V, i 


__7 


32 






















IO 


21 






25 


"5 


WlLLOUGHBY 


II, i 
II, iii 


6 

2 


10 
2 


Duchess of 
York 


V, ii 
V, iii 


16 
12 


45 
j8 






"~ 8 


12 






"28 


93 


FlTZ WATER 


IV, i 

V, vi 






Duchess of 


I, ii 


4 


58 


5 


23 


Gloucester 








i 


_4 














~6 


27 


Lady 


III,iv 


6 


6 



THE TRAGEDY OF 
KING RICHARD THE SECOND 



DRAMATIS PERSON^ 1 



King Richard the Second' 2 

John ofGaunt, Duke' 

of Lancaster, 

}>to King 

Richard 



uncles 



Edmund of Langley, 

Duke of York, 
Henry, surnamed Bolingbroke, 

Duke of Hereford, son to John 

of Gaunt ; afterwards King 

Henry IV 
Duke of Aumerle, 3 son to the 

Duke of York 
Thomas Mowbray, Duke of 

Norfolk 

Duke of Surrey 

Earl of Salisbury 

Lord Berkeley 4 

Bushy, "1 

■n , servants to King 

Bagot. 5 l 

Green 



f» 1 
*> J 



Richard 



Earl of Northumberland 

Henry Percy, surnamed Hot- 
spur, son to Northumberland 

Lord Ross 

Lord Willoughby 6 

Lord Fitzwater 

Bishop of Carlisle 

Abbot of Westminster 

Lord Marshal 

Sir Stephen Scroop 

Sir Pierce of Exton 

Captain of a band of Welsh- 
men 

Queen to King Richard 
Duchess of York 
Duchess of Gloucester 7 
Lady attending on the Queen 



Lords, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, two Gardeners, Keeper, 
Messenger, Groom, and other Attendants. 

Scene : England and Wales. 



1 DRAMATIS PERSONS. Rowe was the first to give a list of the 
characters. His list was corrected by Capell, and this corrected list has been 
substantially followed by subsequent editors. 

2 Notes on the historical relations of the more important Dramatis Personae 
are given when each character is introduced into the play. 

3 Aumerle. Pronounced ' o-murl'.' 

4 Berkeley. Pronounced r berk'lee ' or < bark'lee ' (see textual variants, 
II, ii, 119). « Berkley' is the spelling in the Cambridge text. 

5 Bagot. Pronounced < bag'ot.' 

6 Willoughby. Pronounced < wil'o-bee.' 

7 Gloucester. Pronounced ' glos'ter.' The Folios usually spell the name 
1 Glouster,' and many modern editions adopt the form ' Gloster.' 

2 



ACT I 

Scene I. London. King Richard's palace 

Efiter King Richard, John of Gaunt, with other Nobles 
and Attendants 

King Richard. Old John of Gaunt, time-honoured Lan- 
caster, 
Hast thou, according to thy oath and band, 
Brought hither Henry Hereford thy bold son, 
Here to make good the boist'rous late appeal, 

ACT I. Scene I | Actus Primus, throughout the play). — London . . . 
Scaena Prima Ff | Qi omits (similarly palace | QiFf omit. 

For the dramatic construction and analysis of scenes, and the 
characters, see Introduction. 

ACT I. Scene I. In the Folios, not in the Quartos, the play is di- 
vided into acts and scenes, which are given with Latin nomenclature. 

i. Gaunt, . . . Lancaster. The Duke of Lancaster, fourth son of 
Edward III, was born in 1340, in the city of Ghent, Flanders, from 
which he received his surname. At the time represented in this 
play, 1398, he was fifty-eight years of age. In Shakespeare's day 
men were considered old at fifty. 

2. band : bond. ' Band ' and ' bond ' were at first merely phonetic 
variants, and interchangeable. In The Comedy of Errors, IV, ii, 49-51, 
there is a pun on the words. Six weeks before the time of this scene 
Lancaster had given his oath and bond, in a Parliament held at 
Shrewsbury, that his son should appear for combat at the time and 
place appointed. This was in accordance with ancient custom. 

3. Hereford. In the First Folio written ' Herford ' and pronounced 
as a dissyllable throughout the play. 

4. appeal: impeachment (of treason). As in IV, i, 45, 79. 

3 



4 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 

Which then our leisure would not let us hear, 5 

Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray ? 

Gaunt. I have, my liege. 

King Richard. Tell me, moreover, hast thou sounded him, 
If he appeal the duke on ancient malice ; 
Or worthily, as a good subject should, 10 

On some known ground of treachery in him ? 

Gaunt. As near as I could sift him on that argument, 
On some apparent danger seen in him 
Aim'd at your highness, no inveterate malice. 

King Richard. Then call them to our presence ; face 
to face, 1 5 

And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear 
Th' accuser and the accused freely speak : 
High-stomach'd are they both, and full of ire, 
In rage deaf as the sea, hasty as fire. 

E7iter Bolingbroke and Mowbray 

Bolingbroke. Many years of happy days befall 20 

My gracious sovereign, my most loving liege ! 

Mowbray. Each day still better other's happiness ; 

20. Scene II Pope. — befall | befal Globe Carnb. 

12. sift him: discover his motives by shrewd questioning. 0,1. Ham- 
let, II, ii, 58. — argument: subject for discussion, subject. Often so. 

13. apparent: evident, manifest. So in IV, i, 124. 

18. High-stomach'd : of high courage, haughty. Shakespeare uses 
' stomach ' in the figurative senses of ' appetite,' ' anger,' and ' war- 
like spirit' (i.e. appetite for battle). 

19. Bolingbroke. Henry Plantagenet, the eldest son of Lan- 
caster, surnamed Bolingbroke from his having been born at the 
castle of that name in Lincolnshire. 

22. still : always, continually. So in II, ii, 34, and often. — other's : 
the other's. Often so. See Abbott, § 12. 



scene i KING RICHARD THE SECOND 5 

Until the heavens, envying earth's good hap, 
Add an immortal title to your crown ! 

King Richard. We thank you both : yet one but flatters 
us, 25 

As well appeareth by the cause you come ; 
Namely, to appeal each other of high treason. 
Cousin of Hereford, what dost thou object 
Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray ? 

Bolingbroke. First, heaven be the record to my speech ! 
In the devotion of a subject's love, 31 

Tendering the precious safety of my prince, 
And free from other misbegotten hate, 
Come I appellant to this princely presence. 
Now, Thomas Mowbray, do I turn to thee, 35 

And mark my greeting well ; for what I speak 
My body shall make good upon this earth, 
Or my divine soul answer it in heaven. 
Thou art a traitor, and a miscreant, 

Too good to be so, and too bad to live, 40 

Since the more fair and crystal is the sky, 
The uglier seem the clouds that in it fly. 
Once more, the more to aggravate the note, 
With a foul traitor's name stuff I thy throat, 

34. appellant Qi | appealant Ff. 

26. cause you come : cause for which you come. For the apparent 
omission of the relative here and in line 50, see Abbott, §§ 244, 394. 

28. what dost thou object : what charge do you lay. 

32. Tendering: holding tender, cherishing. In Hamlet, I, iii, 107, 
there is a play on this and the usual meaning of the word, ' offer.' 

40. Too good. Mowbray was of the royal blood. 

43- aggravate the note : add to the stigma. 

44. stuff . . . throat. Cf . the expression ' swallow an insult.' 



6 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 

And wish (so please my sovereign) ere I move, 45 

What my tongue speaks my right-drawn sword may prove. 
Mowbray. Let not my cold words here accuse my zeal : 
'T is not the trial of a woman's war, 
The bitter clamour of two eager tongues, 
Can arbitrate this cause betwixt us twain ; 50 

The blood is hot that must be cool'd for this : 
Yet can I not of such tame patience boast 
As to be hush'd, and nought at all to say : 
First, the fair reverence of your highness curbs me 
From giving reins and spurs to my free speech ; 55 

Which else would post until it had return'd 
These terms of treason doubled down his throat : 
Setting aside his high blood's royalty, 
And let him be no kinsman to my liege, - 
I do defy him, and I spit at him ; 60 

Call him a slanderous coward and a villain : 
Which to maintain, I would allow him odds, 
And meet him, were I tied to run afoot 
Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps, 
Or any other ground inhabitable, 65 

47. cold Q1F1 1 coole F2 I cool F3F4. 57. doubled Qi | doubly Ff. 

46. right-drawn sword : sword drawn in a rightful cause. 

49. eager: biting. The original (Latin) meaning. 

40-50. tongues, Can : tongues that can. See note, line 26. 

56. post: go posthaste. Cf. Ill, iv, 90; V, ii, 112. 

58. Setting aside Bolingbroke's royal blood. 

65. inhabitable : not habitable. The prefix has here a privative 
sense. Cf. Heywood, General History of Women (1624) : " where all 
the country was scorched by the heat of the sun, and the place al- 
most inhabitable for the multitude of serpents." Shakespeare uses 
1 inhabit ' and ' uninhabitable ' in their modern meanings. 



scene I KING RICHARD THE SECOND 7 

Where ever Englishman durst set his foot. 
Mean time let this defend my loyalty : 
By all my hopes, most falsely doth he lie. 

Bolingbroke. Pale trembling coward, there I throw my 
gage, 
Disclaiming here the kindred of the king, 70 

And lay aside my high blood's royalty, 
Which fear, not reverence, makes thee to except. 
If guilty dread have left thee so much strength 
As to take up mine honour's pawn, then stoop : 
By that and all the rites of knighthood else, 75 

Will I make good against thee, arm to arm, 
What I have spoke, or thou canst worse devise. 

Mowbray. I take it up ; and by that sword I swear, 
Which gently laid my knighthood on my shoulder, 
I '11 answer thee in any fair degree, 80 

Or chivalrous design of knightly trial : 
And when I mount, alive may I not light, 
If I be traitor, or unjustly fight ! 

King Richard. What doth our cousin lay to Mowbray's 
charge ? 
It must be great that can inherit us 85 

So much as of a thought of ill in him. 

Bolingbroke. Look, what I speak, my life shall prove 
it true ; 



70. the king Qi | a King Ff. devise Qi | spoken, or thou canst 

73. have Qi | hath Ff. deuise Ff. 

77. spoke, or thou canst worse 87. speak | speake Oi | said Ff. 

74. pawn: pledge. The gauntlet of line 69. Cf. IV, i, 55, 70. 
82. light : alight from my horse, dismount. 

85. inherit us : cause us to inherit. See Abbott, § 290. 



8 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 

That Mowbray hath receiv'd eight thousand nobles 

In name of lendings for your highness' soldiers, 

The which he hath detained for lewd employments, 90 

Like a false traitor and injurious villain : 

Besides I say, and will in battle prove, 

Or here or elsewhere to the furthest verge 

That ever was survey'd by English eye, 

That all the treasons for these eighteen years 95 

Complotted and contrived in this land 

Fetch from false Mowbray their first head and spring. 

Further I say, and further will maintain 

Upon his bad life to make all this good, 

That he did plot the Duke of Gloucester's death, 100 

Suggest his soon — believing adversaries, 

And consequently, like a traitor coward, 

Sluic'd out his innocent soul through streams of blood : 

97. Fetch Qi I Fetch'd Fi. 

90. lewd : knavish, base. The word at first meant ' lay,' ' not cler- 
ical '; then ' unlearned,' 'vulgar.' 

100. Duke of Gloucester. This was Thomas of Woodstock, the 
youngest son of Edward III, and so uncle to the king. Fierce, tur- 
bulent, and noted for cruelty in an age of cruel men, he was arrested 
for treason in 1397, and his own nephews and brothers concurred in 
the judgment against him. Upon his arrest he was given into the 
keeping of Norfolk, who pretended to conduct him to the Tower ; 
but, when they reached the Thames, he put him on board a ship, 
took him to Calais, of which Norfolk was governor, and confined 
him in the castle. When ordered, some time afterwards, to bring 
his prisoner before Parliament for trial, Norfolk answered that he 
could not produce the Duke, because, being in the king's prison at 
Calais, he had there died. Holinshed says " the King sent unto 
Thomas Mowbraie to make the duke secretly awaie." 

101. Suggest: instigate. Usually in a bad sense. Cf. Ill, iv, 75. 



scene i KING RICHARD THE SECOND 9 

Which blood, like sacrificing Abel's, cries, 

Even from the tongueless caverns of the earth, 105 

To me for justice and rough chastisement ; 

And, by the glorious worth of my descent, 

This arm shall do it, or this life be spent. 

King Richard. How high a pitch his resolution soars ! 
Thomas of Norfolk, what say'st thou to this ? no 

Mowbray. O, let my sovereign turn away his face, 
And bid his ears a little while be deaf, 
Till I have told this slander of his blood, 
How God and good men hate so foul a liar. 

King Richard. Mowbray, impartial are our eyes and 
ears : 115 

Were he my brother, nay, my kingdom's heir, 
As he is but my father's brother's son, 
Now, by my sceptre's awe, I make a vow, 
Such neighbour nearness to our sacred blood 
Should nothing privilege him, nor partialize 120 

The unstooping firmness of my upright soul : 
He is our subject, Mowbray ; so art thou : 
Free speech and fearless I to thee allow. 

Mowbray. Then Bolingbroke, as low as to thy heart, 
Through the false passage of thy throat, thou liest. 125 

116. my . . . my Qi | my . . . our Ff. 

104-106. cries ... To me. The words finely express the subtle but 
stern audacity of Bolingbroke. They are a note of terror to the king 
and are the more effective because he cannot or dare not resent them. 

109. pitch. A term in falconry, denoting the height to which a 
hawk or falcon flies. 

113. slander : disgrace (that which causes slander) . — blood : ancestry. 

116. my kingdom's heir. These words are like a premonition. 
Bolingbroke and Gaunt had already determined to seize the throne. 



IO THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 

Three parts of that receipt I had for Calais 

Disburs'd I duly to his highness' soldiers ; 

The other part reserv'd I by consent, 

For that my sovereign liege was in my debt 

Upon remainder of a dear account, 130 

Since last I went to France to fetch his queen : 

Now swallow down that lie. For Gloucester's death, 

I slew him not ; but to my own disgrace 

Neglected my sworn duty in that case. 

For you, my noble Lord of Lancaster, 135 

The honourable father to my foe, 

Once did I lay an ambush for your life, 

A trespass that doth vex my grieved soul ; 

But ere I last receiv'd the sacrament 

I did confess it, and exactly begg'd 140 

126. Calais | Callice QiFf. 137. did I Qi | I did Ff. 

126. receipt: money received. Cf. Coriolanus, I, i, 116. 

130. dear : heavy. 'Dear' is often used in Shakespeare to express 
strong emotion, either of pleasure or of pain. It may be used in this 
general sense here. Cf. I, iii, 151. Norfolk and Aumerle, with several 
other peers and a large retinue of knights and esquires, were sent 
over to France in 1395, to negotiate a marriage between Richard and 
Isabella, daughter of the French king, then in her eighth year. The 
next year, 1396, Norfolk went to France again and formally married 
Isabella in the name and behalf of his sovereign. Richard's first 
wife, daughter of Charles IV, Emperor of Germany, and known in 
history as "the good Queen Anne," died in 1394, "to the great greefe 
of hir husband, who loved hir intirelie." 

134. This reads as if Norfolk held it his duty to slay Gloucester, 
or, at least, to obey the king's order to that effect. But such can 
hardly be his meaning, since to excuse himself so would be to ac- 
cuse the king. And perhaps by ' sworn duty ' he means his duty to 
shield Gloucester from the violence of others. 

140. exactly : scrupulously, punctiliously, explicitly. 



scene I KING RICHARD THE SECOND II 

Your grace's pardon, and I hope I had it. 

This is my fault : as for the rest appeal'd, 

It issues from the rancour of a villain, 

A recreant and most degenerate traitor : 

Which in myself I boldly will defend ; 145 

And interchangeably hurl down my gage 

Upon this overweening traitor's foot, 

To prove myself a loyal gentleman 

Even in the best blood chamber'd in his bosom. 

In haste whereof, most heartily I pray 150 

Your highness to assign our trial day. 

King Richard. Wrath-kindled gentlemen, be rul'd by me ; 
Let 's purge this choler without letting blood : 
This we prescribe, though no physician ; 
Deep malice makes too deep incision : 155 

Forget, forgive ; conclude and be agreed ; 
Our doctors say this is no month to bleed. 
Good uncle, let this end where it begun ; 
We '11 calm the Duke of Norfolk, you your son. 

Gaunt. To be a make-peace shall become my age : 160 
Throw down, my son, the Duke of Norfolk's gage. 

King Richard. And, Norfolk, throw down his. 

Gaunt. When, Harry, when ? 

Obedience bids I should not bid again. 

157. month Qi | time Ff. when obedience bids, Obedience bids 

162-163. When, Harry, when? Qi | When Harrie when? Obedience 
Obedience bids Camb | When Harry ? bids, Obedience bids Fi. 

153. choler : bile, anger. A play on the double meaning. 

156. conclude : come to terms, settle the matter. 

157. In the old almanacs the best times for blood-lettin>g were 
carefully noted. " It was customary with our fathers to be bled 
periodically, in spring and in autumn." — Clar. 



12 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 

King Richard. Norfolk, throw down, we bid ; there is 
no boot. 

Mowbray. Myself I throw, dread sovereign, at thy foot. 
My life thou shalt command, but not my shame : 166 

The one my duty owes ; but my fair name, 
Despite of death that lives upon my grave, 
To dark dishonour's use thou shalt not have. 
I am disgrac'd, impeach'd, and baffl'd here; 170 

Pierc'd to the soul with slander's venom'd spear, 
The which no balm can cure but his heart-blood 
Which breath 'd this poison. 

King Richard. Rage must be withstood : 

Give me his gage : lions make leopards tame. 

Mowbray. Yea, but not change his spots : take but my 
shame, 1 7 5 

And I resign my gage. My dear dear lord, 
The purest treasure mortal times afford 
Is spotless reputation ; that away, 
Men are but gilded loam or painted clay. 
A jewel in a ten-times-barr'd-up chest 180 

Is a bold spirit in a loyal breast. 
Mine honour is my life ; both grow in one ; 

172. balm I balme Q1F1F3 I blame F2F4. 

164. there is no boot : it is useless to resist. Cf.I,iii, 174; III,iv,i8. 

168. that. The antecedent is 'name.' Cf. Ill, ii, 38. 

170. baffl'd : disgraced as if held recreant. See Murray. 

172-173. his heart-blood Which : the heart blood of him who. Here 
' his,' retaining its force as the genitive of ' he,' stands as the ante- 
cedent of a relative. 

175. change his spots. Cf. Jeremiah, xiii, 23. Mowbray intimates 
that even the king cannot wipe out his shame in yielding to this 
accusation. 



scene I KING RICHARD THE SECOND 13 

Take honour from me, and my life is done : 

Then, dear my liege, mine honour let me try ; 

In that I live, and for that will I die. 185 

King Richard. Cousin, throw up your gage ; do you 
begin. 

Bolingbroke. O, God defend my soul from such deep sin ! 
Shall I seem crest-fall'n in my father's sight ? 
Or with pale beggar-fear impeach my height 
Before this out-dar'd dastard ? Ere my tongue 190 

Shall wound my honour with such feeble wrong, 
Or sound so base a parle, my teeth shall tear 
The slavish motive of recanting fear, 
And spit it bleeding in his high disgrace, 
Where shame doth harbour, even in Mowbray's face. 195 

[Exit Gaunt] 

King Richard. We were not born to sue, but to com- 
mand; 
Which since we cannot do to make you friends, 
Be ready, as your lives shall answer it, 

187. God Qi I heauen Ff. — deep | 191. my Q1F4 I mine F1F2F8. 

deepe Qi | foule Ff. 192. parle Ff | parlee Qi. 

187. The Folios have changed ' God ' of the Quarto to ' heaven.' 
An act of Parliament under King James forbade the use of the name 
' God ' on the stage. This accounts for similar changes throughout 
the play. 

191. feeble wrong : wrong of feebleness, wrong that would show 
feebleness. Cf. 'partial slander,' I, iii, 241. 

192-195. parle: parley. Cf. King John, II, i, 205. — my teeth . . . 
face. It is said that the Greek philosopher Anaxarchus, when being 
pounded in a mortar at the command of Nicocreon, tyrant of Cyprus, 
bit off his tongue and spit it into the face of his tormentor. 

193. motive: moving power, instrument (i.e. the tongue, by which 
fear is expressed). Cf. Hamlet, I, i, 105. 



14 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 

At Coventry, upon Saint Lambert's day : 

There shall your swords and lances arbitrate 200 

The swelling difference of your settled hate : 

Since we can not atone you, we shall see 

Justice design the victor's chivalry. 

Lord marshal, command our officers at arms 

Be ready to direct these home alarms. [Exeunt] 205 

Scene II. The Duke of Lancaster's palace 

Enter John of Gaunt with the Duchess of Gloucester 

Gaunt. Alas, the part I had in Woodstock's blood 
Doth more solicit me than your exclaims, 
To stir against the butchers of his life ! 
But since correction lieth in those hands 
Which made the fault that we cannot correct, 5 

Put we our quarrel to the will of heaven ; 

Scene II | Scene III Pope. — The . . .palace Theobald. 

199. Saint Lambert's day. " The King . . . ordeined ... a daie of 
battell appointed them at Coventrie . . . some saie upon a mondaie 
in August, other upon saint Lamberts daie, being the seventeenth 
of September." — Holinshed. 

202. atone : set at one, reconcile. The original meaning. 

203. design : point out. The original (Latin) meaning. 

Scene II. . . . Enter . . . Duchess of Gloucester. She was 
Eleanor Bohun, sister to Mary, wife of Bolingbroke. 

1. My blood relationship to Woodstock. Thomas, brother of John 
of Gaunt, was surnamed Woodstock from the place of his birth. 

4. those hands. Referring to the king, whom Gaunt charges with 
responsibility for Gloucester's death. 

6-7. heaven . . . they. ' Heaven ' is elsewhere found as a plural. 
Cf. Hamlet, III, iv, 173 : " Heaven hath pleas'd . . . that I must be 
their scourge and minister." 



scene ii KING RICHARD THE SECOND 15 

Who, when they see the hours ripe on earth, 
Will rain hot vengeance on offenders' heads. 

Duchess. Finds brotherhood in thee no sharper spur ? 
Hath love in thy old blood no living fire ? 10 

Edward's seven sons, whereof thyself art one, 
Were as seven vials of his sacred blood, 
Or seven fair branches springing from one root : 
Some of those seven are dried by nature's course, 
Some of those branches by the Destinies cut ; 1 5 

But Thomas, my dear lord, my life, my Gloucester, 
One vial full of Edward's sacred blood, 
One flourishing branch of his most royal root, 
Is crack'd, and all the precious liquor spilt, 
Is hack'd down, and his summer leaves all faded 20 

By envy's hand and murder's bloody axe. 
Ah, Gaunt, his blood was thine ! that bed, that womb, 
That metal, that self-mould, that fashion'd thee 
Made him a man ; and though thou liv'st and breath'st, 
Yet art thou slain in him : thou dost consent 25 

In some large measure to thy father's death, 
In that thou seest thy wretched brother die, 
Who was the model of thy father's life : 
Call it not patience, Gaunt ; it is despair : 
In suff'ring thus thy brother to be slaughter'd, 30 

Thou show'st the naked pathway to thy life, 

8. rain F3 I raine QiFslraigne Fi. —faded Q1F4 I vaded F1F2F3. 

20. leaves Q1F2F3F4 I leafes Fi. 23. metal | mettall Qi | mettle Ff. 

15. Destinies. The three Fates (Greek, Moipcu ; Latin, Parcae), or 
goddesses of destiny, were Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. 

21. Here, as elsewhere in Shakespeare, ' envy ' means ' hatred.' 
28. model: thing modeled, image, copy. Cf. 'merit,' I, iii, 156. 



16 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 

Teaching stern murder how to butcher thee : 

That which in mean men we intitle patience 

Is pale cold cowardice in noble breasts. 

What shall I say ? to safeguard thine own life, 35 

The best way is to venge my Gloucester's death. 

Gaunt. God's is the quarrel ; for God's substitute, 
His deputy anointed in His sight, 
Hath caus'd his death : the which, if wrongfully, 
Let heaven revenge ; for I may never lift 40 

An angry arm against His minister. 

Duchess. Where then, alas, may I complain myself ? 

Gaunt. To God, the widow's champion and defence. 

Duchess. Why, then, I will. Farewell, old Gaunt ; 
Thou go'st to Coventry, there to behold 45 

Our cousin Hereford and fell Mowbray fight. 
O, sit my husband's wrongs on Hereford's spear, 
That it may enter butcher Mowbray's breast ! 
Or, if misfortune miss the first career, 

Be Mowbray's sins so heavy in his bosom, 50 

That they may break his foaming courser's back, 
And throw the rider headlong in the lists, 
A caitiff recreant to my cousin Hereford ! 

37. God's . . . God's Qi | Heauens 43. God Qi | heauen Ff. 

. . . heauens Ff. 47. sit Ff | set Qi. 

42. complain myself . Cf.'retir'd himself,' I V, i, 96; "I do repent me," 
V, iii, 52. Reflexives are common in Shakespeare. See Abbott, § 296. 

49. career: charge (in a combat or tournament), encounter. The 
earlier meanings are ' race course,' and ' space within the barriers 
at a tournament.' 

53. caitiff : captive. Here an adjective, with the original (Latin) 
meaning. — recreant: one who yields. The original (Latin) meaning. 
' Caitiff ' and ' recreant ' are terms of chivalry. 



scene ii KING RICHARD THE SECOND 17 

Farewell, old Gaunt : thy sometimes brother's wife 

With her companion grief must end her life. 55 

Gaunt. Sister, farewell ; I must to Coventry, 
As much good stay with thee as go with me ! 

Duchess. Yet one word more : grief boundeth where it 
falls, 
Not with the empty hollowness, but weight : 
I take my leave before I have begun ; 60 

For sorrow ends not when it seemeth done : 
Commend me to thy brother, Edmund York. 
Lo, this is all : nay, yet depart not so, 
Though this be all, do not so quickly go ; 
I shall remember more. Bid him, ah — what ? — 65 

With all good speed at Plashy visit me. 
Alack, and what shall good old York there see 
But empty lodgings and unfurnish'd walls, 
UnpeopPd offices, untrodden stones ? 

And what hear there for welcome but my groans ? 70 

Therefore commend me ; let him not come there, 
To seek out sorrow that dwells every where. 
Desolate, desolate, will I hence and die : 
The last leave of thee takes my weeping eye. [Exeunt] 

62. thy Q I my Qi. 65. ah, I ah Qi | Oh, Ff. 

55. companion grief. Cf. the words of Constance, Arthur's mother, 
King John, III, i, 73 : "here I and sorrows sit." 

66. Plashy. Gloucester's seat (in virtue of his office as High Con- 
stable), near Dunmow, in Essex, on the way to Coventry. 

68. unfurnish'd. " The usual manner of hanging the rooms in the 
old castles was only to cover the naked stone walls with tapestry, or 
arras, hung upon tenter hooks, from which they were easily taken 
down upon every removal." — Bishop Percy. 



18 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act I 

Scene III. The lists at Coventry 
Enter the Lord Marshal and the Duke of Aumerle 

Marshal. My Lord Aumerle, is Harry Hereford arm'd ? 

Aumerle. Yea, at all points, and longs to enter in. 

Marshal. The Duke of Norfolk, sprightfully and bold, 
Stays but the summons of the appellant's trumpet. 

Aumerle. Why, then, the champions are prepar'd, and stay 
For nothing but his majesty's approach. 6 

The trumpets sound, and the King enters with his nobles, 
Gaunt, Bushy, Bagot, Green, a?id others. When they 
are set, enter Mowbray in arms, defendant, with a Herald 

King Richard. Marshal, demand of yonder champion 
The cause of his arrival here in arms : 
Ask him his name, and orderly proceed 
To swear him in the justice of his cause. 10 

Marshal. In God's name, and the king's, say who thou art, 
And why thou com'st thus knightly clad in arms, 
Against what man thou com'st, and what thy quarrel : 

Scene III | Scene IV Pope.— 4. appellant's | Appealants Ff. 

The . . . Coventry Pope. 13. and what Qi I and what's Ff. 

Scene III. The official actors in this scene are spoken of by 
Holinshed as follows : " The duke of Aumarle that daie being high 
constable of England, and the duke of Surrie marshall, entered into 
the listes with a great companie of men apparelled in silke sendall 
imbrodered with silver, both richlie and curiouslie, everie man having, 
a tipped staffe to keepe the field in order." Aumerle was Edward, 
son of Edmund of York. His title was from the town of Albemarle, 
or Aumerle, in Normandy. He fell at Agincourt. 

2. at all points : completely, cap-a-pie. 



scene in KING RICHARD THE SECOND 19 

Speak truly on thy knighthood and thy oath, 
As so defend thee heaven, and thy valour! 15 

Mowbray. My name is Thomas Mowbray, Duke of 
Norfolk ; 
Who hither come engaged by my oath 
(Which God defend a knight should violate !) 
Both to defend my loyalty and truth 

To God, my king, and my succeeding issue, . 20 

Against the Duke of Hereford that appeals me ; 
And, by the grace of God and this mine arm, 
To prove him, in defending of myself, 
A traitor to my God, my king, and me : 
And as I truly fight, defend me heaven ! 2 5 

The trumpets sound. Enter Bolingbroke, appellant, in 
armour, with a Herald 

King Richard. Marshal, ask yonder knight in arms, 
Both who he is, and why he cometh hither 
Thus plated in habiliments of war ; 
And formally, according to our law, 
Depose him in the justice of his cause. 30 

Marshal. What is thy name ? and wherefore com'st 
thou hither 
Before King Richard in his royal lists ? 

14. thy oath Qi | thine oath Ff. 20. and my Qi | and his Ff. 

15. As so QiFf I And so Rowe 28. plated Qi | placed FfQs. 
Delius. 29. formally Q1F2F3F4 I formerly 

17. come Q1F2F3F4 I comes Fi. F1Q4. 

18. God Qi I heauen Ff. 

18. defend: forbid. Cf. French defendre. So ' forfend,' IV, i, 129. 
20. my succeeding issue. Norfolk's children would share in the 
forfeiture incurred through his treason against the king. 
30. Depose him ; take his deposition, examine him on oath. 



20 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act I 

Against whom com'st thou ? and what 's thy quarrel ? 
Speak like a true knight, so defend thee heaven ! 34 

Bolingbroke. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby, 
Am I ; who ready here do stand in arms, 
To prove, by God's grace and my body's valour, 
In lists, on Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, 
That he 's a traitor, foul and dangerous, 
To God of heaven, King Richard, and to me : 40 

And as I truly fight, defend me heaven ! 

Marshal. On pain of death, no person be so bold 
Or daring-hardy as to touch the lists, 
Except the marshal and such officers 
Appointed to direct these fair designs. 45 

Bolingbroke. Lord marshal, let me kiss my sovereign's 
hand, 
And bow my knee before his majesty : 
For Mowbray and myself are like two men 
That vow a long and weary pilgrimage ; 
Then let us take a ceremonious leave 50 

And loving farewell of our several friends. 

Marshal. The appellant in all duty greets your highness, 
And craves to kiss your hand, and take his leave. 

King Richard. We will descend, and fold him in our 
arms. 
Cousin of Hereford, as thy cause is right, 55 

So be thy fortune in this royal fight ! 
Farewell, my blood ; which if to-day thou shed, 
Lament we may, but not revenge thee dead. 

Bolingbroke. O, let no noble eye profane a tear 

37. God's Qi I heauens Ff. ing, hardy Qi | daring hardie F1F2. 

43. daring-hardy Theobald I dar- 55. right Qi | just Ff. 



scene in KING RICHARD THE SECOND 21 

For me, if I be gor'd with Mowbray's spear : 60 

As confident as is the falcon's flight 

Against a bird, do I with Mowbray fight. 

My loving lord, I take my leave of you ; 

Of you, my noble cousin, Lord Aumerle ; 

Not sick, although I have to do with death, 65 

But lusty, young, and cheerly drawing breath. 

Lo, as at English feasts, so I regreet 

The daintiest last, to make the end most sweet : 

O thou, the earthly author of my blood, 

Whose youthful spirit, in me regenerate, 70 

Doth with a twofold vigour lift me up 

To reach at victory above my head, 

Add proof unto mine armour with thy prayers ; 

And with thy blessings steel my lance's point, 

That it may enter Mowbray's waxen coat, 75 

And furbish new the name of John a Gaunt, 

Even in the lusty haviour of his son. 

Gaunt. God in thy good cause make thee prosp'rous ! 
Be swift like lightning in the execution ; 
And let thy blows, doubly redoubled, 80 

Fall like amazing thunder on the casque 
Of thy adverse pernicious enemy : 
Rouse up thy youthful blood, be valiant and live. 

69. earthly Qi | earthy Ff. Gaunt QiFf | o' Gaunt Theobald. 

71. vigour Q1F2F3F4 I rigor Fi. 78, 85, 101. God Qi | Heauen Ff. 

76. furbish Qi | furnish Ff . — a 82. adverse Qi | amaz'd Ff. 

67. regreet: greet, salute. So in line 186. Cf. line 142, and note. 
75. waxen : turned to wax, penetrable. An example of prolepsis. 

77. haviour: behaviour. 'Haviour' (variants are 'haver,' 'havoir,' 
' havour ') is from the French avoir. It is an older form than ' be- 
haviour.' See Murray. 



22 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 

Bolingbroke. Mine innocency and Saint George to thrive ! 

Mowbray. However God or fortune cast my lot, 85 

There lives or dies, true to King Richard's throne, 
A loyal, just, and upright gentleman. 
Never did captive with a freer heart 
Cast off his chains of bondage, and embrace 
His golden uncontroll'd enfranchisement, 90 

More than my dancing soul doth celebrate 
This feast of battle with mine adversary. 
Most mighty liege, and my companion peers, 
Take from my mouth the wish of happy years : 
As gentle and as jocund as to jest 95 

Go I to fight : truth hath a quiet breast. 

King Richard. Farewell, my lord : securely I espy 
Virtue with valour couched in thine eye. 
Order the trial, marshal, and begin. 

Marshal. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby, 100 
Receive thy lance ; and God defend the right ! 

Bolingbroke. Strong as a tower in hope, I cry Amen. 

Marshal. Go bear this lance to Thomas, Duke of Norfolk. 

84. innocency Capell | innocence 86. King | Kings Fi. 

QiFf I innocence, God Pope. 101. the right Qi | thy right Ff. 

84. Saint George : England's patron saint. — to thrive : help me to 
thrive. For the ellipsis, see Abbott, § 382. 

95. as to jest. Cf. Hamlet, III, ii, 244 : " No, no, they do but jest, 
poison in jest." Possibly there is a reference to playing a part in a 
masque. Schmidt interprets, <( as if I were going to a mock-fight." 

97. securely: confidently, free from anxiety. Limiting ' couched.' 
Cf. the meaning in II, i, 266. 

103. Go bear. In the Elizabethan period ' go ' and ' come ' still 
took the simple infinitive (without ' to ') to express purpose, where 
to-day we may use the infinitive with ' to,' but prefer ' and ' with a 
coordinate verb. Cf. I, iv, 63. See Abbott, § 349, 



scene in KING RICHARD THE SECOND 23 

1 Herald. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby, 
Stands here for God, his sovereign, and himself, 105 
On pain to be found false and recreant, 

To prove the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray, 
A traitor to his God, his king, and him ; 
And dares him to set forward to the fight. 

2 Herald. Here standeth Thomas Mowbray, Duke of 

Norfolk, no 

On pain to be found false and recreant, 
Both to defend himself and to approve 
Henry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby, 
To God, his sovereign, and to him disloyal ; 
Courageously and with a free desire 115 

Attending but the signal to begin. 

Marshal. Sound, trumpets, and set forward, combatants. 

[A charge sounded} 
Stay, the king hath thrown his warder down. 

King Richard. Let them lay by their helmets and their 
spears, 
And both return back to their chairs again : 120 

Withdraw with us ; and let the trumpets sound 
While we return these dukes what we decree. 

[A long flourish} 
Draw near 
And list what with our council we have done : 

109. forward Q1F3F4 I forwards F1F2. 

118. warder: staff (borne by the presiding officer of the combat). 
" The king cast downe his warder, and the heralds cried, ' Ho, ho ! ' 
Then the king caused their speares to be taken from them, and 
commanded them to repaire againe to their chaires, where they re- 
mained two long houres." — Holinshed. 



24 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 

For that our kingdom's earth should not be soil'd 125 

With that dear blood which it hath fostered ; 

And for our eyes do hate the dire aspect 

Of civil wounds plough 'd up with neighbours' sword ; 

And for we think the eagle-winged pride 

Of sky-aspiring and ambitious thoughts, 130 

With rival-hating envy, set on you 

To wake our peace, which in our country's cradle 

Draws the sweet infant breath of gentle sleep ; 

Which so rous'd up with boist'rous untun'd drums, 

With harsh-resounding trumpets' dreadful bray, 135 

And grating shock of wrathful iron arms, 

Might from our quiet confines fright fair peace, 

And make us wade even in our kindred's blood ; 

Therefore we banish you our territories : 

You, cousin Hereford, upon pain of life, 140 

Till twice five summers have enrich'd our fields, 

Shall not regreet our fair dominions, 

But tread the stranger paths of banishment. 

Bolingbroke. Your will be done : this must my com- 
fort be, 
That sun that warms you here shall shine on me ; 145 

And those his golden beams to you here lent 
Shall point on me, and gild my banishment. 

128. civil Ff I cruell Qi (some Q1Q2Q3Q4 I F1Q5 omit, 
copies). — sword Qi | swords Ff. 140. upon QiFf | on Pope. — life 

129-133. And for . . . gentle sleep Qi | death Ff. 

125. For that: in as much as. Often so. See Abbott, § 151. 

140. pain of life. An older idiom than ' pain of death ' with the 
same meaning. Cf. line 153. 

142. regreet: greet again. Or perhaps simply 'greet.' Cf. line 67, 
and see note. 



scene in KING RICHARD THE SECOND 25 

King Richard. Norfolk, for thee remains a heavier doom, 
Which I with some unwillingness pronounce : 
The sly slow hours shall not determinate 150 

The dateless limit of thy dear exile : 
The hopeless word of ' never to return ' 
Breathe I against thee, upon pain of life. 

Mowbray. A heavy sentence, my most sovereign liege, 
And all unlook'd for from your highness' mouth : 155 

A dearer merit, not so deep a maim 
As to be cast forth in the common air, 
Have I deserved at your highness' hands : 
The language I have learn 'd these forty years 
(My native English) now I must forego ; 160 

And now my tongue's use is to me no more 
Than an unstringed viol, or a harp, 
Or like a cunning instrument cas'd up, 
Or, being open, put into his hands 

That knows no touch to tune the harmony : 165 

Within my mouth you have enjail'd my tongue, 
Doubly portcullis'd with my teeth and lips ; 
And dull, unfeeling, barren ignorance 

150. sly slow QqFiF3F4 I flye 167. portcullis'd | portcullist Qi | 

slow F2. percullist Fi. 

150. sly slow hours. The idea is that of creeping forward stealthily 
and noiselessly. Cf. the Grave-digger's song in Hamlet, V, i, 89 : 
" But age with his stealing steps " ; Sonnets, lxxvii, 7-8 : 

Thou by thy dial's shady stealth mayst know 
Time's thievish progress to eternity. 

In earlier editions of Hudson's Shakespeare ' fly-slow ' (i.e. ' slow 
flying'), the reading of the Second Folio, was adopted. — deter- 
minate : set a limit to. 

156. merit : thing merited, reward. Cf. ' model,' I, ii, 28, 



( 



26 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 

Is made my jailer to attend on me. 

I am too old to fawn upon a nurse, 170 

Too far in years to be a pupil now : 

What is thy sentence, then, but speechless death, 

Which robs my tongue from breathing native breath ? 

King Richard. It boots thee not to be compassionate : 
After our sentence plaining comes too late. 175 

Mowbray. Then thus I turn me from my country's light, 
To dwell in solemn shades of endless night. 

King Richard. Return again, and take an oath with thee. 
Lay on our royal sword your banish'd hands ; 
Swear by the duty that you owe to God 180 

(Our part therein we banish with yourselves) 
To keep the oath that we administer : 
You never shall (so help you truth, and God !) 
Embrace each other's love in banishment ; 
Nor never look upon each other's face ; 185 

Nor never write, regreet, nor reconcile 
This louring tempest of your home-bred hate ; 
Nor never by advised purpose meet, 
To plot, contrive, or complot any ill, 
'Gainst us, our state, our subjects, or our land. 190 

Bolingbroke. I swear. 

172. then Ff | Qi omits. 180, 183, 204. God Qi | heauen Ff. 

180. you owe Ff | y' owe Qi. 186. regreet, nor Qi| regreet, or Ff. 

174. compassionate : sorrowful. Shakespeare nowhere else uses 
the word to express pity for one's own emotions. 

181. Richard releases them from allegiance to him. " Writers on 
the law of nations are divided in opinion whether an exile is still 
bound by his allegiance to the State that banished him. Shakespeare 
here is of the side of those who hold the negative." — Staunton. 

188. advised : considered, deliberate. Frequently so. 



scene in KING RICHARD THE SECOND 27 

Mowbray. And I, to keep all this. 

Bolingbroke. Norfolk, so far as to mine enemy : 
By this time, had the king permitted us, 
One of our souls had wander'd in the air, 195 

Banish'd this frail sepulchre of our flesh, 
As now our flesh is banish'd from this land : 
Confess thy treasons ere thou fly the realm ; 
Since thou hast far to go, bear not along 
The clogging burden of a guilty soul. 200 

Mowbray. No, Bolingbroke : if ever I were traitor, 
My name be blotted from the book of life, 
And I from heaven banish'd as from hence ! 
But what thou art, God, thou, and I do know ; 
And all too soon, I fear, the king shall rue : 205 

Farewell, my liege. Now no way can I stray; 
Save back to England, all the world 's my way. [jExit~\ 

King Richard. Uncle, even in the glasses of thine eyes 
I see thy grieved heart : thy sad aspect 
Hath from the number of his banish'd years 210 

Pluck'd four away. [To Bolingbroke] Six frozen winters 

spent, 
Return with welcome home from banishment. 

Bolingbroke. How long a time lies in one little word ! 

Four lagging winters and four wanton springs 

End in a word : such is the breath of kings. 215 

198. the Qi I this Ff. 211. [To Bolingbroke] Steev- 

208. Scene V Pope. ens. 

193. Norfolk, so far as I may speak to mine enemy. Bolingbroke 
wishes to speak to Norfolk, but by way of caution reminds him that 
they are still on the footing of enemies. See Abbott, § 382. 

205. rue. When he learns what Bolingbroke's purpose is. 

214. wanton : unrestrained, free, wayward. Often so. 



28 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 

Gaunt. I thank my liege, that in regard of me 
He shortens four years of my son's exile : 
But little vantage shall I reap thereby ; 
For, ere the six years that he hath to spend 
Can change their moons and bring their times about, 220 
My oil-dried lamp and time-bewasted light 
Shall be extinct with age and endless night ; 
My inch of taper will be burnt and done, 
And blindfold death not let me see my son. 

King Richard. Why, uncle, thou hast many years to live. 

Gaunt. But not a minute, king, that thou canst give : 226 
Shorten my days thou canst with sullen sorrow, 
And pluck nights from me, but not lend a morrow ; 
Thou canst help time to furrow me with age, 
But stop no wrinkle in his pilgrimage : 230 

Thy word is current with him for my death, 
But dead, thy kingdom cannot buy my breath. 

King Richard. Thy son is banish'd upon good advice, 
Whereto thy tongue a party-verdict gave : 
Why at our justice seem'st thou then to lour? 235 

Gaunt. Things sweet to taste prove in digestion sour. 
You urg'd me as a judge, but I had rather 
You would have bid me argue like a father. 
O, had 't been a stranger, not my child, 
To smooth his fault I should have been more mild : 240 

227. sullen Qi I sudden Ff. Qq I FfQs omit. 

239-242. 0, had 't... life destroy 'd 240. should Qi | would Q2Q3Q4. 

227. sullen : gloomy, melancholy. Commonly so. 
231. is current : bears the stamp of authority. 

233. upon good advice : after due consideration. 

234. Your tongue had a part in the sentence I pronounced. 



scene in KING RICHARD THE SECOND 29 

A partial slander sought I to avoid, 

And in the sentence my own life destroy'd : 

Alas, I look'd when some of you should say, 

I was too strict to make mine own away ; 

But you gave leave to my unwilling tongue 245 

Against my will to do myself this wrong. 

King Richard. Cousin, farewell ; and, uncle, bid him so : 
Six years we banish him, and he shall go. 

[Flourish. Exeunt King Richard and tram] 

Aumerle. Cousin, farewell : what presence must not 
know, 
From where you do remain let paper show. 250 

Marshal. My lord, no leave take I ; for I will ride, 
As far as land will let me, by your side. 

Gaunt. O, to what purpose dost thou hoard thy words, 
That thou return'st no greeting to thy friends ? 

Bolingbroke. I have too few to take my leave of you, 
When the tongue's office should be prodigal 256 

To breathe th' abundant dolour of the heart. 

Gaunt. Thy grief is but thy absence for a time. 

248. [Flourish. Exeunt . . . train] 249. Scene VI Pope. 

Exit. Flourish Ff | Qi omits. 

241. partial slander : slander our charge of partiality. Cf. ' feeble 
wrong,' I, i, 191, and see note. 

244. to make : in making. The infinitive was often so used. Cf. 
256-257. See Abbott, § 356. 

249-250. Aumerle asks to be informed by Bolingbroke of his 
place of residence. — presence : the king. In line 289 it means the 
1 presence-chamber,' where the king received his guests. Aumerle's 
words are purposely obscure. They might be taken as meaning 
treachery. 

256-257. prodigal . . . dolour of : prodigal of giving expression to 
the deep grief of. 



3<D THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 

Bolingbroke. Joy absent, grief is present for that time. 

Gaunt. What is six winters ? they are quickly gone. 260 

Bolingbroke. To men in joy, but grief makes one hour ten. 

Gaunt. Call it a travel that thou takest for pleasure. 

Bolingbroke. My heart will sigh when I miscall it so, 
Which finds it an inforced pilgrimage. 

Gaunt. The sullen passage of thy weary steps 265 

Esteem as foil, wherein thou art to set 
The precious jewel of thy home return. 

Bolingbroke. Nay, rather, every tedious stride I make 
Will but remember me what a deal of world 
I wander from the jewels that I love. 270 

Must I not serve a long apprenticehood 
To foreign passages, and in the end, 
Having my freedom, boast of nothing else 
But that I was a journeyman to grief ? 

Gaunt. All places that the eye of heaven visits 275 

266. as foil I as foyle Qi | a soyle 268-293. Nay, rather ... it light 

F1F2 I a soyl F3 I a Soil F4. Qq I F1Q5 omit. 

260. is. For the form of the verb see Abbott, §§ 333, 335. 

266. foil : "A thin leaf of some metal placed under a precious 
stone to increase its brilliancy or under some transparent substance 
to give it the appearance of a precious stone." — Murray. 

269. remember: remind. Frequently so. Cf. Ill, iv, 14. 

271-274. An apprentice had to serve a certain number of years 
(commonly seven) away from home before he could return as a jour- 
neyman, qualified to work for days' wages. 

275. the eye of heaven: the sun. As in III, ii, 37. A favorite 
metaphor. Cf. Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I, iii, 4 : 

From her fayre head her fillet she undight, 
And layd her stole aside : her angel's face, 

As the great eye of heaven, shyned bright, 
And made a sunshine in the shadie place. 



scene in KING RICHARD THE SECOND 31 

Are to a wise man ports and happy havens. 

Teach thy necessity to reason thus ; 

There is no virtue like necessity. 

Think not the king did banish thee, 

But thou the king : woe doth the heavier sit, 280 

Where it perceives it is but faintly borne. 

Go, say I sent thee forth to purchase honour, 

And not the king exil'd thee ; or suppose 

Devouring pestilence hangs in our air, 

And thou art flying to a fresher clime : 285 

Look, what thy soul holds dear, imagine it 

To lie that way thou go'st, not whence thou com'st : 

Suppose the singing birds musicians, 

The grass whereon thou tread'st the presence strew'd, 

The flowers fair ladies, and thy steps no more 290 

Than a delightful measure or a dance ; 

280. king : woe Q1Q2 I King, who Q3Q4. 

275-280. Malone compares the passage in Lyly's Euphues in which 
Euphues exhorts Botonio to take his exile patiently : " Nature hath 
given to man a country no more than she hath a house, or lands, or 
livings. Socrates would neither call himself an Athenian, neither a 
Grecian, but a citizen of the world. Plato never accompt him ban- 
ished that had the sunne, fire, ayre, water, and earth that he had be- 
fore ; where he felt the winter's blast and the summer's blaze ; where 
the same sunne and the same moon shined ; whereby he noted that 
every place was a country to a wise man, and all parts a palace to a 
quiet mind. When it was cast in Diogenes' teeth that the Sinoponetes 
had banished him Pontus, yea, said he, I them of Diogenes." 

289. presence : presence-chamber. — strew'd. It was customary to 
strew the floors with rushes. 

291. measure : "A formal court dance." — Steevens. Cf. Much 
Ado About Nothing, II, i, 80 : " mannerly modest (as a measure), full 
of state and ancientry." 



32 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 

For gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite 
The man that mocks at it, and sets it light. 

Bolingbroke. O, who can hold a fire in his hand 
By thinking on the frosty Caucasus ? 295 

Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite 
By bare imagination of a feast ? 
Or wallow naked in December snow 
By thinking on fantastic summer's heat ? 
O, no ! the apprehension of the good 300 

Gives but the greater feeling to the worse : 
Fell sorrow's tooth doth never rankle more 
Than when he bites, but lanceth not the sore. 

Gaunt. Come, come, my son, I '11 bring thee on thy way : 
Had I thy youth and cause, I would not stay. 305 

Bolingbroke. Then, England's ground, farewell ! sweet 
soil, adieu ! 
My mother, and my nurse, that bears me yet : 
Where'er I wander, boast of this I can, 
Though banish'd, yet a trueborn Englishman. \Exeunt\ 

302. never Qi | euer Ff. 307. that Qi | which Ff. 

303. he Qi I it Ff. 309. \Exeuni\ Ff omit. 

292. gnarling : snarling. Cf. / Henry VI, III, i, 192. 

299. fantastic summer's : of summer existing only in imagination. 

300. apprehension : conception, imagination. Cf. Hamlet, II, ii, 
319: "in apprehension, how like a god." 

302. rankle : " breed corruption, poison." — Schmidt. 

304. bring : accompany. Cf. I, iv, 2. 

308-309. " The duke of Norfolke departed sorrowfully out of the 
relme into Almanie, and at the last came to Venice, where he for 
thought and melancholie deceassed. . . . The duke of Hereford 
tooke his iornie over into Calis, and from thence went into France, 
where he remained. ... A woonder it was to see what a number 
of people ran after him in everie towne and street where he came, 



scene iv KING RICHARD THE SECOND 33 

Scene IV. The court 

Enter the King, with Bagot and Green at o?ie door ; and 
the Duke of Aumerle at another 

King Richard. We did observe. Cousin Aumerle, 
How far brought you high Hereford on his way ? 

Aumerle. I brought high Hereford, if you call him so, 
But to the next highway, and there I left him. 

King Richard. And say, what store of parting tears 
were shed ? 5 

Aumerle. Faith, none for me, except the northeast wind, 
Which then blew bitterly against our faces, 
Awak'd the sleeping rheum, and so by chance 
Did grace our hollow parting with a tear. 

King Richard. What said our cousin when you parted 
with him ? 10 

Aumerle. ' Farewell ' : 
And for my heart disdained that my tongue 
Should so profane the word, that taught me craft 
To counterfeit oppression of such grief 

Scene IV | Scene VII Pope ) 7. blew Qi I grew Ff . — faces Qi | 

Act II, Scene I Johnson conj. — face Ff. 
The court Theobald. 8. sleeping Qi | sleepie Fi. 

before he tooke the sea, lamenting and bewailing his departure, as 
who would saie that, when he departed, the onelie shield and com- 
fort of the commonwealth was vaded and gone." — Holinshed. 

1. We did observe. Addressed to Bagot and Green, who are sup- 
posed to have been talking to him of Bolingbroke's " courtship to 
the common people " (line 24). 

6. for me : on my part. — except : except that. Frequently so. 

8. rheum : tears. Cf. Much Ado About Nothing, V, ii, 85. 

12, 43. for : because. Cf. ' for because,' V, v, 3. See Abbott, § 151. 



34 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 

That words seem'd buried in my sorrow's grave. 15 

Marry, would the word ' farewell ' have lengthen'd hours, 
And added years to his short banishment, 
He should have had a volume of farewells, 
But since it would not, he had none of me. 19 

King Richard. He is our cousin, cousin, but 't is doubt, 
When time shall call him home from banishment, 
Whether our kinsman come to see his friends. 
Ourself and Bushy, Bagot here and Green 
Observ'd his courtship to the common people ; 
How he did seem to dive into their hearts 25 

With humble and familiar courtesy, 
What reverence he did throw away on slaves, 
Wooing poor craftsmen with the craft of smiles 
And patient underbearing of his fortune, 
As 't were to banish their affects with him. 30 

Off goes his bonnet to an oyster-wench ; 
A brace of draymen bid God speed him well, 
And had the tribute of his supple knee, 
With * Thanks, my countrymen, my loving friends,' 

15. words Qi I word Ff. heere Bagot and Greene Ff. 
23. Bushy . . . Green Q5 | Bushy: 28. smiles Qi | soules F1F2. 

16. Marry : verily. Originally an oath by the Virgin Mary. 
24-36. In after years Bolingbroke, when king, paints a different 

picture of himself and Richard. Cf. / Hen-iy IV, III, ii, 39-84. 

28. craftsmen . . . craft. An intentional and characteristic word-play. 

29. underbearing : supporting, endurance, suffering. 

30. affects : affections. Cf. Othello, I, iii, 264. 

31. bonnet. The ' bonnet ' was a soft hat without brim. Cf. Corio- 
lanus, III, ii, 73 ; Hamlet, V, ii, 95. 

33. the tribute of his supple knee. Cf. Coriolanus, III, ii, 75-76: 
" Thy knee bussing the stones : for in such business Action is 
eloquence." 



scene iv KING RICHARD THE SECOND 35 

As were our England in reversion his, 35 

And he our subjects' next degree in hope. 

Green. Well, he is gone, and with him go these thoughts. 
Now for the rebels which stand out in Ireland, 
Expedient manage must be made, my liege, 
Ere further leisure yield them further means 40 

For their advantage and your highness' loss. 

King Richard. We will ourself in person to this war : 
And, for our coffers with too great a court 
And liberal largess are grown somewhat light, 
We are inforc'd to farm our royal realm ; 45 

The revenue whereof shall furnish us 
For our affairs in hand : if that come short, 
Our substitutes at home shall have blank charters ; 



35. reversion : right of future possession. So in II, ii, 38. 

39. Expedient : expeditious. Cf . ' expedience ' meaning ' haste,' 
II, i, 287. — manage: management, control. 

45. farm : lease. Bushy, Bagot, Green, and Scroop, favorites of 
the king, paid him a fixed sum for the privilege of collecting the 
rents of the land. Such privilege often led to extortion. 

48. substitutes: deputies. Cf. I, ii, 37. — charters: contracts, 
notes. These being blank, the deputies could fill in any sum and 
any man's name. " The common brute [bruit] ran, that the king 
had set to farme the realme of England unto sir William Scroope, 
earl of Wiltshire, and then treasuror of England, to sir Iohn Bushie, 
sir William Bagot, and sir Henry Green, knights. . . . Manie blanke 
charters were deuised, and brought into the citie, which manie of 
the substantiall and wealthie citizens were faine to seale, to their 
great charge, as in the end appeared. And the like charters were 
sent abroad into all shires within the realme ; whereby great grudge 
and murmuring arose among the people : for, when they were so 
sealed, the kings officers wrote in the same what liked them, as well 
for charging the parties with payment of monie, as otherwise." — 
Holinshed. 



36 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 

Whereto, when they shall know what men are rich, 

They shall subscribe them for large sums of gold, 50 

And send them after to supply our wants ; 

For we will make for Ireland presently. 

Enter Bushy 
Bushy, what news ? 

Bushy. Old John of Gaunt is grievous sick, my lord, 
Suddenly taken ; and hath sent post haste 55 

To entreat your majesty to visit him. 

King Richard. Where lies he ? 

Bushy. At Ely House. 

King Richard. Now put it, God, in the physician's mind 
To help him to his grave immediately ! 60 

The lining of his coffers shall make coats 
To deck our soldiers for these Irish wars. 
Come, gentlemen, let 's all go visit him : 
Pray God we may make haste, and come too late ! 

All. Amen. [Exeunt] 65 

54. grievous Qi | verie F1F2. 65. All. Amen Staunton | Amen 

59. in the Qi | in his Ff. Qi | Ff omit. 

59, 64. God Qi I heauen Ff. 

52. presently: at once, immediately. So in II, ii, 91 ; III, ii, 179. 

58. Ely House : the bishop of Ely's palace in Holburn, the site of 
which is still marked by Ely Place. Gloucester, in Richard III, III, 
iv, 34, speaks of its garden and good strawberries. 



ACT II 

Scene I. Ely House 
Enter John of Gaunt sick, with the Duke of York, &»c 

Gaunt. Will the king come, that I may breathe my last 
In wholesome counsel to his unstaid youth ? 

York. Vex not yourself, nor strive not with your breath ; 
For all in vain comes counsel to his ear. 

Gaunt. O, but they say the tongues of dying men 5 

Enforce attention like deep harmony : 
Where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain, 
For they breathe truth that breathe their words in pain. 
He that no more must say is listen'd more 

Than they whom youth and ease have taught to glose ; 10 
More are men's ends mark'd than their lives before : 

The setting sun, and music at the close, 
As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last, 

Ely House | QiFf omit. 12. at Qi | is Ff. 

1. Enter . . . Duke of York, &c. Edward the Third had five sons 
who grew to manhood. Edmund, Duke of York, the fourth of these, 
was born, in 1341, at Langley, near St. Alban's ; hence called " Ed- 
mund of Langley." He is said to have been " of an indolent dispo- 
sition, a lover of pleasure, and averse to business ; easily prevailed 
upon to lie still, and consult his own quiet, and never acting with 
spirit upon any occasion." 

10. glose : gloze, talk speciously, use fair and flattering words. 

12. close : conclusion of a musical movement or phrase, cadence. 
37 



38 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 

Writ in remembrance more than things long past : 

Though Richard my life's counsel would not hear, 15 

My death's sad tale may yet undeaf his ear. 

York. No ; it is stopp'd with other flattering sounds, 
As praises, of whose taste the wise are fond, 
Lascivious metres, to whose venom sound 
The open ear of youth doth always listen ; 20 

Report of fashions in proud Italy, 
Whose manners still our tardy apish nation 
Limps after in base imitation : 
Where doth the world thrust forth a vanity 
(So it be new, there 's no respect how vile) 25 

That is not quickly buzz'd into his ears ? 
Then all too late comes counsel to be heard, 
Where will doth mutiny with wit's regard. 
Direct not him whose way himself will choose : 
'T is breath thou lack'st, and that breath wilt thou lose. 30 

Gaunt. Methinks I am a prophet new inspir'd, 
And thus expiring do foretell of him : 
His rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last, 
For violent fires soon burn out themselves ; 
Small showers last long, but sudden storms are short ; 35 
He tires betimes that spurs too fast betimes ; 

15. life's I lifes F4 I liues'QiFi state the wise are found Q2 1 his state : 

F2F3. then there are found QsQjFf (sound 

18. whose . . . fond Camb | whose Fi) Q5. 
taste the wise are found Qi | whose 

21-23. This was true of Shakespeare's day. In Richard's reign, 
owing to his marriage, France came to have the greater influence. 

28. with wit's regard : against that which the understanding 
approves. 

31-32. Here is a grim play on the original (Latin) meaning of 
' inspir'd ' (' breathed into ') and ' expiring ' (' breathing out '). 



scene I KING RICHARD THE SECOND 39 

With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder : 

Light vanity, insatiate cormorant, 

Consuming means, soon preys upon itself. 

This royal throne of kings, this scepter 'd isle, 40 

This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, 

This other Eden, demi-paradise ; 

This fortress built by nature for herself 

Against infection and the hand of war ; 

This happy breed of men, this little world, 45 

This precious stone set in the silver sea, 

Which serves it in the office of a wall, 

Or as a moat defensive to a house, 

Against the envy of less happier lands ; 

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England, 50 

This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings, 

Fear'd by their breed, and famous by their birth, 

Renowned for their deeds as far from home. 

For Christian service and true chivalry, 

As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry 55 

Of the world's ransom, blessed Mary's Son ; 

This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land, 

Dear for her reputation through the world, 

Is now leas'd out (I die pronouncing it) 

Like to a tenement or pelting farm : 60 

England bound in with the triumphant sea, 

Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege 

Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame, 

With inky blots, and rotten parchment bonds : 

48. as a Ff I as Qi. 52. by . . . by Qi | by . . . for Ff 

60. pelting: paltry, petty. Cf. 'pelting villages,' KingLear, II, iii, 18. 



40 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 

That England, that was wont to conquer others, 65 

Hath made a shameful conquest of itself : 
Ah, would the scandal vanish with my life, 
How happy then were my ensuing death ! 

Enter King Richard and Queen, Aumerle, Bushy, 
Green, Bagot, Ross, and Willoughby 

York. The king is come : deal mildly with his youth ; 
For young hot colts being rag'd do rage the more. 70 

Queen. How fares our noble uncle, Lancaster ? 

King Richard. What comfort, man ? how is 't with aged 
Gaunt ? 

Gaunt. O, how that name befits my composition ! 
Old Gaunt indeed, and gaunt in being old : 
Within me grief hath kept a tedious fast, 75 

And who abstains from meat that is not gaunt ? 
For sleeping England long time have I watch'd ; 
Watching breeds leanness, leanness is all gaunt : 
The pleasure that some fathers feed upon, 
Is my strict fast ; I mean, my children's looks ; 80 

And therein fasting, hast thou made me gaunt : 
Gaunt am I for the grave, gaunt as a grave, 
Whose hollow womb inherits nought but bones. 

69. Scene II Pope. 

73. composition. It connotes both ' state of mind ' and ' bodily 
condition.' 

73-83. On this speech Coleridge has the following comment : 
" Yes ! on a death-bed there is a feeling which may make all things 
appear but as puns and equivocations. And a passion there is that 
carries off its own excess by plays on words as naturally, and there- 
fore as appropriately to drama, as by gesticulations, looks, or tones." 
Schlegel defends the passage on similar grounds. 



scene I KING RICHARD THE SECOND 41 

King Richard. Can sick men play so nicely with their 



names 



Gaunt. No, misery makes sport to mock itself : 85 — 

Since thou dost seek to kill my name in me, 
I mock my name, great king, to flatter thee. 

King Richard. Should dying men flatter with those 
that live ? 

Gaunt. No, no, men living flatter those that die. 

King Richard. Thou, now a-dying, say'st thou flatter'st 
me. 90 

Gaunt. O, no ! thou diest, though I the sicker be. 

King Richard. I am in health, I breathe, and see 
thee ill. 

Gaunt. Now He that made me knows I see thee ill ; 
111 in myself to see, and in thee seeing ill : 
Thy death-bed is no lesser than thy land, 95 

Wherein thou liest in reputation sick, 
And thou, too careless patient as thou art, 
Commit'st thy anointed body to the cure 
Of those physicians that first wounded thee : 
A thousand flatterers sit within thy crown, 100 

Whose compass is no bigger than thy head ; 

88. with Qi I Ff omit. 95. thy land Qi | the land Ff. 

92. and see Qi | I see Ff. 101. head Q1F1 | hand F2F3F4. 

84. nicely: daintily. Cf. Twelfth Night, III, i, 16-18: "they that 
dally nicely with words, may quickly make them wanton." 

86. to kill ... in me. By banishing Bolingbroke, my son and heir. 

92, 93. ill. Richard means physical illness ; Gaunt, moral illness 
(cf. lines 94, 96). 

94. Being in myself ill to see (visibly ill), and within thee discern- 
ing moral ill. Most editors, with Steevens (who would omit ' to see '), 
have overlooked the double sense in ' see ' and ' seeing.' 



42 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 

And yet, incaged in so small a verge, 

The waste is no whit lesser than thy land. 

O, had thy grandsire with a prophet's eye 

Seen how his son's son should destroy his sons, 105 

From forth thy reach he would have laid thy shame, 

Deposing thee before thou wert possessed, 

Which art possess'd now to depose thyself. 

Why, cousin, wert thou regent of the world, 

It were a shame to let this land by lease ; no 

But, for thy world enjoying but this land, 

Is it not more than shame to shame it so ? 

Landlord of England art thou now, not king : 

Thy state of law is bondslave to the law ; 

And thou — , 

King Richard. A lunatic lean-witted fool, 115 

Presuming on an ague's privilege, 
Dar'st with thy frozen admonition 
Make pale our cheek, chasing the royal blood 

102. incaged F1F2 I inraged Qi. 115. And thou — King Richard. 

109. wert Q1F4 I were F1F2F3. A | And thou King. A Qi | And — 

no. this Q1F4 I his F1F2F3. Rich. And thou, a Ff. 
113. now, not Theobald I now not, 118. chasing Qi | chafing Ff. 

not Qi I and not Ff . 

102. verge: compass. A legal term. The ' verge ' was the district, 
twelve leagues in circumference about the court of Marshalsea and 
the Palace court, within which the king's lord steward and marshal 
had special jurisdiction. So named from the ' verge,' or staff, borne 
by the marshal. 

103. waste. A legal term meaning the destruction of property by 
a tenant. The king's flatterers are the wasteful tenants. 

107. possess'd : possessed of the throne. In line 108 it means 
' possessed by mad desire.' 

115. lean-witted : devoid of brains, stupid. More word-play on 
Gaunt's name. Cf. lines 73-82. 



scene i KING RICHARD THE SECOND 43 

With fury from his native residence. 

Now, by my seat's right royal majesty, 120 

Wert thou not brother to great Edward's son, 

This tongue that runs so roundly in thy head 

Should run thy head from thy unreverent shoulders. 

Gaunt. O, spare me not, my brother Edward's son, 
For that I was his father Edward's son. 125 

That blood already, like the pelican, 
Hast thou tapp'd out and drunkenly carous'd : 
My brother Gloucester, plain well-meaning soul, 
(Whom fair befall in heaven 'mongst happy souls !) 
May be a precedent and witness good 130 

That thou respect'st not spilling Edward's blood : 
Join with the present sickness that I have ; 
And thy unkindness be like crooked age, 
To crop at once a too long wither'd flower. 
Live in thy shame, but die not shame with thee ! 135 

These words hereafter thy tormentors be ! 
Convey me to my bed, then to my grave : 
Love they to live that love and honour have. 

[Exit, borne off by his Attendants] 

124. brother Q2F3F4 I brothers Qi 135. Live QiFf | Die Capell cc-nj. 

F1F2. 138. [Exit . . . Attendants] Capell 

127. Hast thou Qi I Thou hast Ff . | Exit QiFf. 

119. his : its. ' Its ' was just coming into use in Shakespeare's day. 
I2i. son: Edward the Black Prince, eldest son of Edward III. 
126. pelican. The young pelicans were thought to feed on blood 
drawn from the breast of the mother bird. Cf. Hamlet, IV, v, 146-147 : 

And like the kind life-rendering pelican, 
Repast them with my blood. 

126-127. Gaunt accuses the king of the murder of Gloucester. 
138. Love they to live : let them love to live. 



44 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 

King Richard. And let them die that age and sullens 
have ! 
For both hast thou, and both become the grave. 140 

York. I do beseech your majesty, impute his words 
To wayward sickliness and age in him : 
He loves you on my life, and holds you dear 
As Harry Duke of Hereford, were he here. 

King Richard. Right, you say true : as Hereford's love, 
so his; 145 

As theirs, so mine ; and all be as it is. 

Enter Northumberland 

Northumberland. My liege, old Gaunt commends him 
to your majesty. 

King Richard. What says he ? 

Northumberland. Nay, nothing, all is said : 

His tongue is now a stringless instrument ; 
Words, life, and all, old Lancester hath spent. 1 50 

York. Be York the next that must be bankrupt so ! 
Though death be poor, it ends a mortal woe. 

King Richard. The ripest fruit first falls, and so doth he ; 
His time is spent, our pilgrimage must be : 
So much for that. Now for our Irish wars : 155 

147. Scene III Pope. 

139. sullens: moroseness, melancholy. Cf. ' sullen,' I, iii, 227. 

143-144. holds you dear As Harry : holds you as dear as (he holds) 
Harry. See Abbott, § 276. The ambiguity of construction enables 
Richard purposely to take ' Harry' as subject. 

144-145. " This couplet is one of those penetrating touches of 
character-drawing which form the texture of the great tragedies, are 
scattered at intervals over the early plays, and in the present play 
occur mainly in the part of Richard." — Herford. 



scene I KING RICHARD THE SECOND 45 

We must supplant those rough rug-headed kerns, 

Which live like venom, where no venom else 

But only they have privilege to live. 

And for these great affairs do ask some charge, 

Towards our assistance we do seize to us 160 

The plate, coin, revenues and moveables, ^f 

Whereof our uncle Gaunt did stand possess'd. 

York. How long shall I be patient ? ah, how long 
Shall tender duty make me suffer wrong ? 
Not Gloucester's death, nor Hereford's banishment, 165 

Not Gaunt's rebukes, nor England's private wrongs, 
Nor the prevention of poor Bolingbroke 
About his marriage, nor my own disgrace, 
Have ever made me sour my patient cheek, 
Or bend one wrinkle on my sovereign's face. 170 

I am the last of noble Edward's sons, 
Of whom thy father, Prince of Wales, was first : 
In war was never lion rag'd more fierce, 
In peace was never gentle lamb more mild, 
Than was that young and princely gentleman. 175 

His face thou hast, for even so look'd he, 
Accomplish'd with the number of thy hours ; 
But when he frown'd, it was against the French 

156. supplant : overthrow, remove, destroy. — rug-headed : bushy- 
headed. Apparently so named because their heads resembled the 
rough cloaks, called ' rugs,' which the Irish wore. — kerns : light- 
armed Irish foot soldiers. Cf. 2 Henry VI, III, i, 367 : " like a shag- 
hair'd crafty kern." 

157. no venom else. An allusion to the story that St. Patrick freed 
the island of venomous reptiles. 

166. Gaunt's rebukes : the rebukes given to Gaunt (lines 1 1 5-123). 
173. was never lion rag'd : was never lion that raged. 



46 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act n 

And not against his friends ; his noble hand 

Did win what he did spend, and spent not that 180 

Which his triumphant father's hand had won ; 

His hands were guilty of no kindred blood, 

But bloody with the enemies of his kin. 

O Richard ! York is too far gone with grief, 

Or else he never would compare between. 185 

King Richard. Why, uncle, what 's the matter ? 

York. O my liege, 

Pardon me, if you please ; if not, I, pleas'd 
Not to be pardon'd, am content withal. 
Seek you to seize, and gripe into your hands 
The royalties and rights of banish'd Hereford ? 190 

Is not Gaunt dead ? and doth not Hereford live ? 
Was not Gaunt just ? and is not Harry true ? 
Did not the one deserve to have an heir ? 
Is not his heir a well-deserving son ? 

Take Hereford's rights away, and take from time 195 

His charters and his customary rights ; 
Let not to-morrow then ensue to-day ; 
Be not thyself ; for how art thou a king 
But by fair sequence and succession ? 

Now, afore God (God forbid I say true ! ) 200 

If you do wrongfully seize Hereford's rights, 

182. kindred Q4 I kindreds Ff. 201. rights Qi | right Ff. 

185. compare between : drew such a comparison. York somewhat 
weakly offers the excuse of his grief for making this comparison 
between the king and his father. 

190. royalties : privileges belonging to a member of the royal house. 

195-196. If Hereford's rights are taken away, time is deprived of 
its rights to make the son heir to the father. 



scene i KING RICHARD THE SECOND 47 

Call in the letters patents that he hath 

By his attorneys general to sue 

His livery, and deny his offer'd homage, 

You pluck a thousand dangers on your head, 205 

You lose a thousand well-disposed hearts, 

And prick my tender patience to those thoughts 

Which honour and allegiance cannot think. 

King Richard. Think what you will, we seize into our 
hands 
His plate, his goods, his money, and his lands. 210 

York. I '11 not be by the while : my liege, farewell : 
What will ensue hereof, there 's none can tell ; 
But by bad courses may be understood 
That their events can never fall out good. [Exit] 

King Richard. Go, Bushy, to the Earl of Wiltshire 
straight: 215 

Bid him repair to us to Ely House 
To see this business. To-morrow next 

202. the Qi I his Ff. 209. seize Q3F4 I cease Qi | seise 

206. lose Q2F4 I loose Q1F1F2F3. F1F2F3. 

202. letters patents : letters patent, letters open to inspection. A 
writing executed and sealed, by which a person is granted power 
and authority to do some act or enjoy some right. A term from 
French law, and hence the plural ending on the adjective. 

203-204. sue His livery : institute a suit, as heir, to obtain posses- 
sion of the lands which Gaunt held by feudal tenure. — deny : refuse 
to accept. 

214. events : results, outcome. The original (Latin) meaning. 

215. Earl of Wiltshire : Sir William le Scrope. Made earl in 1397, 
and appointed treasurer of England. He was beheaded by Boling- 
broke, at Bristol. 

217. see : keep in view, watch over. — To-morrow next : the next 
morning. 



48 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act 11 

We will for Ireland ; and 't is time, I trow : 

And we create, in absence of ourself. 

Our uncle York lord governor of England ; 220 

For he is just, and always lov'd us well : 

Come on, our queen ! to-morrow must we part ; 

Be merry, for our time of stay is short. 

[Flourish. Exeunt King, Queen, Aumerle, Bushy, 

Green, and Bagot] 
Northumberland. Well, lords, the Duke of Lancaster 

is dead. 
Ross. And living too ; for now his son is duke. 225 

Willoughby. Barely in title, not in revenues. 
Northumberland. Richly in both, if justice had her 

right. 
Ross. My heart is great ; but it must break with silence, 
Ere 't be disburden'd with a liberal tongue. 

Northumberland. Nay ; speak thy mind, and let him 
ne'er speak more 230 

That speaks thy words again to do thee harm ! 

Willoughby. Tends that thou wouldst speak to th' Duke 
of Hereford ? 
If it be so, out with it boldly, man ; 
Quick is mine ear to hear of good towards him. 

Ross. No good at all that I can do for him ; 235 

Unless you call it good to pity him, 
Bereft and gelded of his patrimony. 

Northumberland. Now, afore God, 'tis shame such 
wrongs are borne 

224. Scene IV Pope. 238. God Qi | heauen Ff. 

226. revenues Qi I reuennew F1F2. 

229. liberal : free, unrestrained. Cf. Othello, V, ii, 220. 



scene I KING RICHARD THE SECOND 49 

In him, a royal prince, and many moe 

Of noble blood in this declining land. 240 

The king is not himself, but basely led 

By flatterers ; and what they will inform, 

Merely in hate 'gainst any of us all, 

That will the king severely prosecute, 

'Gainst us, our lives, our children, and our heirs. 245 

Ross. The commons hath he pill'd with grievous taxes, 
And quite lost their hearts : the nobles hath he fin'd 
For ancient quarrels, and quite lost their hearts. 

Willoughby. And daily new exactions are devis'd, 
As blanks, benevolences, and I wot not what : 250 

But what, o' God's name, doth become of this ? 

Northumberland. Wars hath not wasted it, for warr'd 
he hath not, 
But basely yielded upon compromise 
That which his noble ancestors achiev'd with blows : 
More hath he spent in peace than they in wars. 255 

Ross. The Earl of Wiltshire hath the realm in farm. 

Willoughby. The king's grown bankrupt like a broken 



246. pill'd F2 I pild Qi I pil'd Fi. 254. noble Qi | Ff omit. 

252. hath QiFf | have Rowe. 

239. moe : more. The old comparative of ' many.' In Middle Eng- 
lish ' moe,' or ' mo,' was used of number and with collective nouns ; 
' more ' had reference specifically to size. 

243. Merely: purely, entirely, quite. Cf. Hamlet, I, ii, 137. 

246. pill'd : peeled, stripped of hide and hair, pillaged. 

250. blanks : blank charters. Cf. I, iv, 48. — benevolences : forced 
loans, levied without legal authority. " First so called in 1473 when 
astutely asked by Edward IV., as a token of goodwill towards his 
rule." — Murray. 

252. Wars hath. For the construction see Abbott, §§ 333-334. 



50 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 

Northumberland. Reproach and dissolution hangeth 
over him. 

Ross. He hath not money for these Irish wars, 
His burdenous taxations notwithstanding, 260 

But by the robbing of the banish'd duke. 

Northumberland. His noble kinsman : most degenerate 
king! 
But, lords, we hear this fearful tempest sing, 
Yet seek no shelter to avoid the storm ; 
We see the wind sit sore upon our sails, 265 

And yet we strike not, but securely perish. 

Ross. We see the very wreck that we must suffer ; 
And unavoided is the danger now, 
For suffering so the causes of our wreck. 

Northumberland. Not so : even through the hollow 
eyes of death 270 

I spy life peering ; but I dare not say 
How near the tidings of our comfort is. 

Willoughby. Nay ; let us share thy thoughts, as thou 
dost ours. 

Ross. Be confident to speak, Northumberland : 
We three are but thyself, and, speaking so, 275 

Thy words are but as thoughts ; therefore be bold. 

Northumberland. Then thus : I have from Port le 
Blanc, a bay 

267, 269. wreck Rowe | wrackeQi 277. Port le Blanc | Port le Blan 
F1F2 I wrack F3F4. Ff | le Port Blan Qi. 

266. securely: free from apprehension, incautiously. 

268. unavoided : unavoidable. Passive participles are frequently so 
used, especially when they have a negative prefix. See Abbott, § 375. 

272. 'Tidings,' like 'news,' is singular in sense. 



scene I KING RICHARD THE SECOND 5 1 

In Brittany, receiv'd intelligence 

That Harry Duke of Hereford, Rainold Lord Cobham, 

[The son and heir to th' Earl of Arundel,] 280 

That late broke from the Duke of Exeter, 

His brother, Archbishop late of Canterbury, 

Sir Thomas Erpingham, Sir John Ramston, 

Sir John Norbery, Sir Robert Waterton, and Francis Quoint, 

All these well furnish'd by the Duke of Bretagne 285 

With eight tall ships, three thousand men of war, 

Are making hither with all due expedience, 

And shortly mean to touch our northern shore : 

Perhaps they had ere this, but that they stay 

The first departing of the king for Ireland. 290 

If then we shall shake off our slavish yoke, 

278. Brittany | Britannie Q2 1 Brit- 283. Ramston Qi | Rainston Ff. 

taine Qi | Britaine F1F2. 284. Quoint Ff | Coines Qi. 

280. See note below. 

280. The son . . . Arundel. The context shows that the Quartos 
and Folios must have omitted at least one line after ' Lord Cobham ' 
(line 279). Material for the line given in the text is found in Holin- 
shed, where the statement is, " his nephue Thomas Arundeli, sonne 
and heire to the late earle of Arundeli . . . The earl of Arundels 
sonne, named Thomas, which was kept in the duke of Exeters 
house, escaped out of the realme." Malone supplied " The son of 
Richard Earl of Arundel." But ' Richard ' is not found in Holinshed, 
and is quite unnecessary, since the phrase " the son and heir " is 
quite Shakespearian without naming the individual. Cf. King John, 
I, i, 56. The similarity of the beginning of the three lines of verse, 
279, 280, 281, with the numerous proper names in the passage, might 
easily cause the compositor to drop one of the lines. 

282. His. Refers to the Earl of Arundel, line 280. 

283. Sir John Ramston. In Holinshed the name is * Sir Thomas 
Ramston.' 

287. expedience : haste. See note, I, iv, 39. 



52 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act n 

Imp out our drooping country's broken wing, 

Redeem from broking pawn the blemish'd crown, 

Wipe off the dust that hides our sceptre's gilt, 

And make high majesty look like itself, 295 

Away with me in post to Ravenspurgh ; 

But if you faint, as fearing to do so, 

Stay and be secret, and myself will go. 

Ross. To horse, to horse ! urge doubts to them that fear. 

Willoughby. Hold out my horse, and I will first be 
there. [Exeunt] 300 

Scene II. Windsor Castle 
Enter Queen, Bushy, and Bagot 

Bushy. Madam, your majesty is too much sad : 
You promis'd, when you parted with the king, 
To lay aside life-harming heaviness, 
And entertain a cheerful disposition. 

Queen. To please the king I did ; to please myself 5 

Scene II | Scene V Pope. — 3. life-harming Qi|selfe-harming 

Windsor Castle Clar. F1F2. 

292. Imp out: repair by grafting. A term from falconry. When 
wing-feathers of a bird were lost or broken, new feathers were arti- 
ficially inserted, to improve the flight. 

293. broking pawn : the hands of pawnbrokers. 

296. in post: posthaste. — Ravenspurgh. A seaport at the mouth 
of the Humber. 

297. faint : become faint-hearted. Cf. Bacon, Essays, Of Atheism : 
"Atheists will ever be talking of that their opinion, as if they fainted 
in it within themselves." 

5-13. " Mark in this scene Shakespeare's gentleness in touching 
the tender superstitions, the terra incognita of presentiments, in the 
human mind ; and how sharp a line of distinction he commonly draws 



scene ii KING RICHARD THE SECOND 53 

I cannot do it : yet I know no cause 

Why I should welcome such a guest as grief, 

Save bidding farewell to so sweet a guest 

As my sweet Richard : yet again, methinks, 

Some unborn sorrow, ripe in fortune's womb, 10 

Is coming towards me, and my inward soul 

With nothing trembles, at something it grieves, 

More than with parting from my lord the king. 

Bushy. Each substance of a grief hath twenty shadows, 
Which shows like grief itself, but is not so : 15 

For sorrow's eye, glazed with blinding tears, 
Divides one thing entire to many objects, 
Like perspectives, which rightly gaz'd upon 
Show nothing but confusion, eyed awry, 
Distinguish form : so your sweet majesty, 20 

Looking awry upon your lord's departure, 
Find shapes of grief more than himself to wail, 
Which, look'd on as it is, is nought but shadows 

between these obscure forecastings of general experience in each 
individual and the vulgar errors of mere tradition. Indeed, it may 
be taken once for all as the truth, that Shakespeare, in the absolute 
universality of his genius, always reverences whatever arises out of 
our moral nature ; he never profanes his Muse with a contemptuous 
reasoning away of the genuine and general, however unaccountable, 
feelings of mankind." — Coleridge. 

14-15. shadows, Which shows. The relative with a plural antece- 
dent frequently takes a singular verb. See Abbott, § 247. 

18-20. perspectives . . . Distinguish form. A ' perspective ' was a 
picture so divided and arranged as to produce confusion when viewed 
directly from in front, but perfect when looked at from the proper 
angle. The picture might present different effects from different 
angles, as is sometimes done in modern signs. Cf. Henry V, V, ii, 
347-348 ; Twelfth Night, V, i, 223-224. 



54 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 

Of what it is not. Then, thrice-gracious queen, 24 

More than your lord's departure weep not : more 's not seen ; 
Or if it be, 't is with false sorrow's eye, 
Which for things true weeps things imaginary. 

Queen. It may be so ; but yet my inward soul 
Persuades me it is otherwise : howe'er it be, 
I cannot but be sad ; so heavy sad, 30 

As, though on thinking on no thought I think, 
Makes me with heavy nothing faint and shrink. 

Bushy. 'T is nothing but conceit, my gracious lady. 

Queen. 'T is nothing less : conceit is still deriv'd 
From some forefather grief ; mine is not so, 35 

For nothing hath begot my something grief ; 
Or something hath the nothing that I grieve : 
'T is in reversion that I do possess, 
But what it is, that is not yet known ; what 
I cannot name ; 't is nameless woe, I wot. 40 

Enter Green 

Green. God save your majesty ! and well met, gentlemen : 
I hope the king is not yet shipp'd for Ireland. 

27. weeps I weepes Qi | weepe Fi 41. Scene VI Pope. — God Qi | 

F-2 I weep F3F4. Heauen Ff. 

33. conceit: imagination, fancy. Cf. Ill, ii, 166. 

34. 'T is nothing less : it is anything but (conceit). — still : always. 
Cf. I, i, 22, and see note. 

38. Only time will reveal it. For ' reversion ' see I, iv, 35. This 
passage is made dark by elaborate verbal play. The meaning seems 
to be, that either nothing has caused her grief, or else there really 
is somewhat in the nothing that she grieves about. And she ' pos- 
sesses ' her grief in reversion, as something which, though really 
hers, she has no right to claim till the coming of the event that is 
to cause it. 



scene II KING RICHARD THE SECOND 55 

Queen. Why hop'st thou so ? 't is better hope he is, 
For his designs crave haste, his haste good hope ; 
Then wherefore dost thou hope he is not shipp'd ? 45 

Green. That he, our hope, might have retir'd his power, 
And driven into despair an enemy's hope, 
Who strongly hath set footing in this land : 
The banish'd Bolingbroke repeals himself, 
And with uplifted arms is safe arriv'd 50 

At Ravenspurgh. 

Queen. Now God in heaven forbid ! 

Green. "Ah, madam, 't is too true : and that is worse, 
The Lord Northumberland, his son young Henry Percy, 
The Lords of Ross, Beaumond, and Willoughby, 
With all their powerful friends, are fled to him. 55 

Bushy. Why have you not proclaim'd Northumberland 
And all the rest revolted faction traitors ? 

Green. We have : whereupon the Earl of Worcester 
Hath broke his staff, resign'd his stewardship, 
And all the household servants fled with him 60 

To Bolingbroke. 

Queen. So, Green, thou art the midwife to my woe, 
And Bolingbroke my sorrow's dismal heir : 
Now hath my soul brought forth her prodigy, 
And I, a gasping new-deliver'd mother, 65 

Have woe to woe, sorrow to sorrow join'd. 

52. Ah Qi I O Ff. F1F2 I the rest of that F3F4. 

57. all the rest Qi I the rest of the 62. to my Qi | of my Ff. 

46. retir'd: withdrawn. — power: force, army. Cf. Coriolanus, I, ii, 9. 
49. repeals: recalls (from exile). Cf. IV, i, 85; Corw/auus,V,v, 5. 

58. Earl of Worcester. Thomas Percy, brother to Northumberland. 

59. staff: the official badge (as Lord High Steward). 



56 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 

Bushy. Despair not, madam. 

Queen. Who shall hinder me ? 

I will despair, and be at enmity 
With cozening hope : he is a flatterer, 

A parasite, a keeper back of death, 70 

Who gently would dissolve the bands of life, 
Which false hope lingers in extremity. 

Enter York 

Green. Here comes the Duke of York. 

Queen. With signs of war about his aged neck, 
O, full of careful business are his looks ! 7 5 

Uncle, for God's sake speak comfortable words. 

York. Should I do so, I should belie my thoughts : 
Comfort 's in heaven ; and we are on the earth, 
Where nothing lives but crosses, cares, and grief. 
Your husband, he is gone to save far off, 80 

Whilst others come to make him lose at home : 
Here am I left to underprop his land, 
Who, weak with age, cannot support myself : 
Now comes the sick hour that his surfeit made ; 
Now shall he try his friends that flatter 'd him. 85 

72. hope lingers Oi I hopes linger 76. God's Oi | heauens Fi. 

Ff. 77. Should . . . thoughts Qi | Ff 

73. Scene VII Pope. omit. 

72. Which false hope causes to linger in extreme distress. For 
this causative sense of 'linger' cf. A Midsummer Night's Dream, I, 
i, 4. See Abbott, § 291. 

75. careful : full of care, anxious. The original meaning. 

76. comfortable : comforting. Such adjectives were originally active 
as well as passive ; for example, ' capable,' ' durable.' Most of them 
are now obsolete or used only passively, such as ' credible,' ' flexible.' 



scene ii KING RICHARD THE SECOND 57 

Enter a Servant 

Servant. My lord, your son was gone before I came. 

York. He was ? why, so ! go all which way it will ! 
The nobles they are fled, the commons they are cold, 
And will, I fear, revolt on Hereford's side. 
Sirrah, get thee to Plashy, to my sister Gloucester ; 90 

Bid her send me presently a thousand pound : 
Hold, take my ring. 

Servant. My lord, I had forgot to tell your lordship, 
To-day, as I came by, I called there : 
But I shall grieve you to report the rest. 95 

York. What is 't, knave ? 

Servant. An hour before I came, the duchess died. 

York. God for his mercy ! what a tide of woes 
Comes rushing on this woeful land at once ! 
I know not what to do : I would to God, 100 

(So my untruth had not provoked him to it) 
The king had cut off my head with my brother's. 
What, are there no posts dispatch'd for Ireland ? 
How shall we do for money for these wars ? 
Come, sister (cousin, I would say), pray, pardon me. 105 
Go, fellow, get thee home, provide some carts, 
And bring away the armour that is there. [Exit Servant] 

94. as I came by, I Qi | I came 99. Comes Qi | Come Ff. 

came by and Ff. 103. no Qi | Ff omit. 

98, 100. God Qi I Heauen Ff. 107. [Exit . . .] Capell. 

92. ring. Which the duchess would recognize as York's. 

101. So my untruth : provided no disloyalty of mine. 

105. sister. " This is one of Shakespeare's touches of nature. 
York is talking to the queen, his cousin, but the recent death of his 
sister is uppermost in his mind." — Steevens. 



58 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 

Gentlemen, will you go muster men ? 

If I know how or which way to order these affairs 

Thus disorderly thrust into my hands, no 

Never believe me ! Both are my kinsmen : 

Th' one is my sovereign, whom both my oath 

And duty bids defend ; th' other, again, 

Is my kinsman, whom the king hath wrong'd, 

Whom conscience, and my kindred bids to right. 115 

Well, somewhat we must do. Come, cousin, I '11 

Dispose of you : 

Gentlemen, go muster up your men, 

And meet me presently at Berkeley. 

I should to Plashy too ; 1 20 

But time will not permit : all is uneven, 

And every thing is left at six and seven. 

\Exeimt York and Queen ] 

108. go Qi I Ff omit. 112. Th' one Ff I Tone Qi. 

no. disorderly thrust QiFf | 119. Berkeley | Barkly Qi | Bark- 

thrust disorderly Steevens Globe. ley castle F1F2. 

122. at six and seven : in confusion. " There is," says Coleridge, 
" scarcely any thing in Shakespeare in its degree more admirably 
drawn than York's character ; his religious loyalty struggling with a 
deep grief and indignation at the king's follies ; his adherence to 
his word and faith, once given in spite of all, even the most natural, 
feelings. You see in him the weakness of old age, and the over- 
whelmingness of circumstances, for a time surmounting his sense 
of duty, — the junction of both exhibited in his boldness in words 
and feebleness in immediate act ; and then again his effort to retrieve 
himself in abstract loyalty, even at the heavy price of the loss of his 
son. This species of accidental and adventitious weakness is brought 
into parallel with Richard's continually increasing energy of thought, 
and as constantly diminishing power of acting ; — and thus it is 
Richard that breathes a harmony and a relation into all the char- 
acters of the play." 



scene ii KING RICHARD THE SECOND 59 

Bushy. The wind sits fair for news to go to Ireland, 
But none returns. For us to levy power 
Proportionable to the enemy 125 

Is all unpossible. 

Green. Besides, our nearness to the king in love 
Is near the hate of those love not the king. 

Bagot. And that 's the wavering commons : for their love 
Lies in their purses ; and whoso empties them, 130 

By so much fills their hearts with deadly hate. 

Bushy. Wherein the king stands generally condemn'd. 

Bagot. If judgment lie in them, then so do we, 
Because we ever have been near the king. 134 

Green. Well, I will for refuge straight to Bristol castle: 
The Earl of Wiltshire is already there. 

Bushy. Thither will I with you ; for little office 
Will the hateful commons perform for us, 
Except like curs to tear us all to pieces. 
Will you go along with us ? 140 

Bagot. No ; I will to Ireland to his majesty. 
Farewell : if heart's presages be not vain, 
We three here part that ne'er shall meet again. 

Bushy. That 's as York thrives to beat back Bolingbroke. 

Green. Alas, poor duke ! the task he undertakes 145 
Is numbering sands, and drinking oceans dry : 
Where one on his side fights, thousands will fly. 
Farewell at once, for once, for all, and ever. 

Bushy. Well, we may meet again. 

Bagot. I fear me, never. 

\Exennt~\ 

126. unpossible Qil impossible Ff. 138. Will . . . commons QiFf [The 

134. ever have been Qi | haue hateful commons will Pope Globe, 
been euer Ff. i3g. to pieces Qi | in pieces Ff. 



60 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 

Scene III. Wilds in Gloucestersliirc 
Enter Bolingbroke and Northumberland, with Forces 

Bolingbroke. How far is it, my lord, to Berkeley now ? 

Northumberland. Believe me, noble lord, 
I am a stranger here in Gloucestershire : 
These high wild hills and rough uneven ways 
Draws out our miles, and makes them wearisome ; 5 

And yet your fair discourse hath been as sugar, 
Making the hard way sweet and delectable : 
But I bethink me what a weary way 
From Ravenspurgh to Cotswold will be found 
In Ross and Willoughby, wanting your company, 10 

Which, I protest, hath very much beguil'd 
The tediousness and process of my travel : 
But theirs is sweet'ned with the hope to have 
The present benefit which I possess ; 

And hope to joy is little less in joy 15 

Than hope enjoy'd : by this the weary lords 
Shall make their way seem short, as mine hath done 
By sight of what I have, your noble company. 

Bolingbroke. Of much less value is my company 
Than your good words. But who comes here ? 20 

Scene III I Scene IX Pope. — 9. Cotswold Hanmer | Cotshall 

Wilds . . . Capell. Ql I Coltshold Ff. 

6. your Qi | our Ff. 14. which Qi | that Ff. 

5. Draws . . . makes. For the grammatical construction, see 
Abbott, §§ 332-333. 

9. Cotswold : Cotswold downs. A range of hills in Gloucester- 
shire, south of Stratford, noted as a hunting ground. 

*5- j°y : enjoy. Cf. V, iii, 95 ; vi, 26. 



scene in KING RICHARD THE SECOND 6l 

Enter Henry Percy 

Northumberland. It is my son, young Harry Percy, 
Sent from my brother Worcester, whencesoever. 
Harry, how fares your uncle ? 

Percy. I had thought, my lord, to have learn'd his 
health of you. 

Northumberland. Why, is he not with the queen ? 25 

Percy. No, my good lord ; he hath forsook the court, 
Broken his staff of office, and dispers'd 
The household of the king. 

Northumberland. What was his reason ? 

He was not so resolv'd when last we spake together. 29 

Percy. Because your lordship was proclaimed traitor. 
But he, my lord, is gone to Ravenspurgh, 
To offer service to the Duke of Hereford, 
And sent me over by Berkeley, to discover 
What power the Duke of York had levied there ; 
Then with directions to repair to Ravenspurgh. 35 

Northumberland. Have you forgot the Duke of Here- 
ford, boy ? 

Percy. No, my good lord, for that is not forgot 
Which ne'er I did remember : to my knowledge, 
I never in my life did look on him. 

Northumberland. Then learn to know him now ; this 
is the duke. 40 

Percy. My gracious lord, I tender you my service, 
Such as it is, being tender, raw, and young ; 
Which elder days shall ripen and confirm 
To more approved service and desert. 

29. last we Oi I we last Ff. 35. directions Qi | direction Ff. 



62 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 

Bolingbroke. I thank thee, gentle Percy ; and be sure 
I count myself in nothing else so happy 46 

As in a soul rememb'ring my good friends ; 
And, as my fortune ripens with thy love, 
It shall be still thy true love's recompense : 
My heart this covenant makes, my hand thus seals it. 50 

Northumberland. How far is it to Berkeley ? and what 
stir 
Keeps good old York there with his men of war ? 

Percy. There stands the castle, by yon tuft of trees, 
Mann'd with three hundred men, as I have heard ; 54 

And in it are the Lords of York, Berkeley, and Seymour ; 
None else of name and noble estimate. 

Enter Ross and Willoughby 

Northumberland. Here come the Lords of Ross and 
Willoughby, 
Bloody with spurring, fiery-red with haste. 

Bolingbroke. Welcome, my lords. I wot your love pursues 
A banish 'd traitor : all my treasury 60 

Is yet but unfelt thanks, which more enrich'd 
Shall be your love, and labour's recompense. 

Ross. Your presence makes us rich, most noble lord. 

Willoughby. And far surmounts our labour to attain it. 

Bolingbroke. Evermore thanks, th' exchequer of the 
poor, 65 

Which till my infant fortune comes to years, 
Stands for my bounty. But who comes here ? 

53. yon Qi I yond Ff. 

45-50. Hotspur recalls these words after his turning against 
Henry. Cf. / Henry IV, I, iii, 250-255. 



scene in KING RICHARD THE SECOND 63 

Enter Berkeley 

Northumberland. It is my Lord of Berkeley, as I guess. 

Berkeley. My Lord of Hereford, my message is to you. 

Bolingbroke. My lord, my answer is — 'to Lancaster ' ; 
And I am come to seek that name in England ; 7 1 

And I must find that title in your tongue, 
Before I make reply to aught you say. 

Berkeley. Mistake me not, my lord ; 't is not my meaning 
To raze one title of your honour out : 75 

To you, my lord, I come (what lord you will) 
From the most gracious regent of this land, 
The Duke of York, to know what pricks you on 
To take advantage of the absent time, 
And fright our native peace with self -borne arms. 80 

Enter York attended 

Bolingbroke. I shall not need transport my words by you : 
Here comes his grace in person. 

My noble uncle ! [Kneels'] 

70. is — 'to Malone I is to QiFf. 80. self-borne | selfeborne Q1Q2 I 

72. tongue QiFiltowne F2|town selfe-borne F1F2 I self-born F3F4. 
F3F4. 81. Scene X Pope. — EnterYoKK 

73. aught F1F2F3 I ought Q1F4. attended Capell | Enter Yorke Ff I 
77. gracious regent of | gratious Qi omits. 

regent of Qi I glorious of Ff. 82. \Kneels\ Capell | QiFf omit. 

70. My answer is, ' Your message is to Lancaster.' Bolingbroke is 
now no more merely Hereford but Duke of Lancaster and means to 
be so addressed. Cf. lines 71-73. 

79. the absent time : the time of absence (of the king). 

80. self-borne arms : arms borne in your own cause. In earlier 
editions of Hudson's Shakespeare, ' self-born ' was the reading 
adopted with the interpretation ' arms (or armed men) that peace 
has herself brought forth and bred.' 



64 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 

York. Show me thy humble heart, and not thy knee, 
Whose duty is deceiveable and false. 

Bolingbroke. My gracious uncle ! 85 

York. Tut, tut ! 
Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle : 
I am no traitor's uncle ; and that word ' grace ' 
In an ungracious mouth is but profane. 
Why have those banish'd and forbidden legs 90 

Dar'd once to touch a dust of England's ground ? 
But then more * why ? ' why have they dar'd to march 
So many miles upon her peaceful bosom, 
Frighting her pale-fac'd villages with war 
And ostentation of despised arms ? 95 

Com'st thou because th' anointed king is hence ? 
Why, foolish boy, the king is left behind, 
And in my loyal bosom lies his power. 
Were I but now the lord of such hot youth 
As when brave Gaunt, thy father, and myself 100 

Rescued the Black Prince, that young Mars of men, 
From forth the ranks of many thousand French, 
O, then how quickly should this arm of mine, 
Now prisoner to the palsy, chastise thee 
And minister correction to thy fault ! 105 

90. those Qi I these Ff. more then, why F4. 

92. But ... * why ' I But . . . why 99. the lord Ff I lord Qi. 

Ql I But more then why F1F2F3I But 100. myself | thy self F3F4. 

84. deceiveable: deceiving. Cf. 'comfortable, 'II, ii, 76, and see note. 

91. a dust : a particle of dust. 

94. pale-fac'd. Proleptic. Cf. 'waxen,' I, iii, 75, and see note. 

95. despised : contemptible, despicable. Among emendations 
suggested by editors are 'despiteful,' 'disposed,' 'deposed.' 

100-102. No historical basis for this has been found. 



scene in KING RICHARD THE SECOND 65 

Bolingbroke. My gracious uncle, let me know my fault : 
On what condition stands it and wherein ? 

York. Even in condition of the worst degree, 
In gross rebellion and detested treason : 
Thou art a banish'd man, and here art come no 

Before the expiration of thy time, 
In braving arms against thy sovereign. 

Bolingbroke. As I was banish'd, I was banish'd Hereford ; 
But as I come, I come for Lancaster. 

And, noble uncle, I beseech your grace 1 1 5 

Look on my wrongs with an indifferent eye : 
You are my father, for methinks in you 
I see old Gaunt alive ; O, then, my father, 
Will you permit that I shall stand condemn'd 
A wandering vagabond ? my rights and royalties 1 20 

Pluck'd from my arms perforce, and given away 
To upstart unthrif ts ? Wherefore was I born ? 
If that my cousin king be king of England, 
It must be granted I am Duke of Lancaster. 
You have a son, Aumerle, my noble cousin ; 125 

Had you first died, and he been thus trod down, 
He should have found his uncle Gaunt a father, 
To rouse his wrongs and chase them to the bay. 

125. cousin Qi I kinsman Ff. 

109. detested : detestable. See note, II, i, 268. Cf. King Lear, 
I, iv, 284. 

112, 143. braving: defiant (with the notion of bravado). 

116. indifferent : impartial. 

128. From the language of the chase. — rouse : start (the game) 
from the lair. — wrongs : wrongers. The abstract has more point 
than the concrete. — to the bay : to close quarters, where the animal 
turns on his pursuers. 



66 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 

I am denied to sue my livery here, 

And yet my letters-patents give me leave : 130 

My father's goods are all distrain'd and sold ; 

And these and all are all amiss employ'd. 

What would you have me do ? 1 am a subject, 

And I challenge law : attorneys are denied me ; 

And therefore personally I lay my claim 135 

To my inheritance of free descent. 

Northumberland. The noble duke hath been too much 
abus'd. 

Ross. It stands your grace upon to do him right. 

Willoughby. Base men by his endowments are made 
great. 

York. My lords of England, let me tell you this : 140 
I have had feeling of my cousin's wrongs 
And labour'd all I could to do him right ; 
But in this kind to come, in braving arms, 
Be his own carver and cut out his way, 

To find out right with wrong, it may not be ; 145 

And you that do abet him in this kind 
Cherish rebellion and are rebels all. 

Northumberland. The noble duke hath sworn his com- 
ing is 
But for his own ; and for the right of that 
We all have strongly sworn to give him aid, 150 

And let him ne'er see joy that breaks that oath ! 

134. And I Qi I And Ff. 145. wrong Qi | wrongs Ff. 

129-130. Cf. II, i, 202-204, an d see notes. 

131. distrain'd: seized (as a pledge or indemnification). A legal term. 
138. stands . . . upon : is incumbent on, it behooves. Cf. Hamlet 
V, ii, 63. 



scene in KING RICHARD THE SECOND 67 

York. Well, well, I see the issue of these arms : 
I cannot mend it, I must needs confess, 
Because my power is weak and all ill left ; 
But if I could, by Him that gave me life, 155 

I would attach you all and make you stoop 
Unto the sovereign mercy of the king ; 
But since I cannot, be it known to you 
I do remain as neuter. So, fare you well ; 
Unless you please to enter in the castle 160 

And there repose you for this night. 

Bolingbroke. An offer, uncle, that we will accept ; 
But we must win your grace to go with us 
To Bristol castle, which they say is held 
By Bushy, Bagot, and their complices, 165 

The caterpillars of the commonwealth, 
Which I have sworn to weed and pluck away. 

York. It may be I will go with you : but yet I '11 pause ; 
For I am loath to break our country's laws : 
Nor friends nor foes, to me welcome you are : 170 

Things past redress are now with me past care. [JExeimt] 

158. to Ff I unto Qi. 164. Bristol | Bristow QiFf. 

154. all ill left : everything left in an inadequate condition. 

156. attach : arrest. A legal term. See Murray. 

160. in : into. ' In ' originally meant ' in,' when used with the 
dative, and ' into ' when used with the accusative. Remnants of ' in ' 
meaning ' into ' still exist in such phrases as ' cut in two,' ' fall in love.' 

165. complices: accomplices. So in III, i, 43. In 2 Henry IV, I, 
i, 163, the word means 'associate,' ' comrade.' 'Accomplice ' occurs 
but once in Shakespeare (/ Henry VI, V, ii, 9), and in a good sense. 

170. " York will be neutral and ' welcome ' the new-comers, pro- 
vided they meet him on the same terms, ' nor friends, nor foes.' The 
previous and following lines indicate his motives." — Herford. 



68 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act n 

Scene IV. A camp in Wales 
Enter Salisbury and a Welsh Captain 

Captain. My Lord of Salisbury, we have stay'd ten days, 
And hardly kept our countrymen together, 
And yet we hear no tidings from the king ; 
Therefore we will disperse ourselves : farewell. 

Salisbury. Stay yet another day, thou trusty Welshman : 
The king reposeth all his confidence in thee. 6 

Captain. 'T is thought the king is dead ; we will not stay : 
The bay-trees in our country are all wither'd, 
And meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven ; 
The pale-fac'd moon looks bloody on the earth, 10 

And lean-look 'd prophets whisper fearful change ; 
Rich men look sad, and ruffians dance and leap, 
The one in fear to lose what they enjoy, 
The other to enjoy by rage and war : 

Scene IV | Scene XI Pope. — 8. are all O1F3F4 I all are F1F2. 

A Camp in Wales Capell. 9. And | The Q5. 

1. Enter Salisbury. The Earl of Salisbury as John (de) Monta- 
cute accompanied Bolingbroke on his crusade in 1390. He acted 
as Lord Marshal (I, i, 204) at Coventry, in place of the hereditary 
official, the Duke of Norfolk ; was captured at Cirencester (V, vi), 
beheaded, and his head put on London Bridge. 

8. The following passage from Holinshed is in the second edition 
only (1586), and is one of the bits of evidence that this was the 
edition used by Shakespeare : " In this yeare, in a maner, through- 
out all the realme of England, old baie trees withered, and after- 
wards, contrarie to all men's thinking, grew greene againe, — a 
strange sight, and supposed to import some unknowne event." 

9. Meteors are among the portents that precede Caesar's death. 
Ci. Julius Cczsar, II, i, 44; Hamlet, I, i, 1 13-125. 



scene iv KING RICHARD THE SECOND 69 

These signs forerun the death or fall of kings. 15 

Farewell : our countrymen are gone and fled, 
As well assur'd Richard their king is dead. [Exit'] 

Salisbury. Ah, Richard, with the eyes of heavy mind 
I see thy glory like a shooting star 

Fall to the base earth from the firmament ! 20 

Thy sun sets weeping in the lowly west, 
Witnessing storms to come, woe, and unrest : 
Thy friends are fled to wait upon thy foes, 
And crossly to thy good all fortune goes. [Exit'] 

15. or fall Qi I Ff omit. 18. with the Qi | with Ff. 



ACT III 

Scene I. Bristol. Before the castle 

Enter Bolingbroke, York, Northumberland, Ross, 
Percy, Willoughby, with Bushy and Green, prisoners 

Bolingbroke. Bring forth these men : 
Bushy and Green, I will not vex your souls 
(Since presently your souls must part your bodies) 
With too much urging your pernicious lives, 
For 't were no charity ; yet, to wash your blood 5 

From off my hands, here in the view of men 
I will unfold some causes of your deaths. 
You have misled a prince, a royal king, 
A happy gentleman in blood and lineaments, 
By you unhappied and disfigur'd clean : 10 

You have in manner with your sinful hours 
Made a divorce betwixt his queen and him, 
Broke the possession of a royal bed, 
And stain'd the beauty of a fair queen's cheeks 
With tears drawn from her eyes by your foul wrongs. 15 

Bristol . . . castle Capell. 15. by your Qi | with your Ff . 

3. part : depart. Shakespeare uses these words interchangeably. 

9. A happy gentleman in : a gentleman happy in. Cf. Ill, ii, 8. 

10. clean : entirely, utterly. Cf. Julhis Ccesar, I, iii, 35 ; Psalms, 
lxxvii, 8. 

11. in manner : in a manner, so to speak. 
11-15. This charge has no historical basis. 

70 



scene i KING RICHARD THE SECOND 71 

Myself, a prince by fortune of my birth, 

Near to the king in blood, and near in love 

Till you did make him misinterpret me, 

Have stoop'd my neck under your injuries, 

And sigh'd my English breath in foreign clouds, 20 

Eating the bitter bread of banishment ; 

Whilst you have fed upon my signiories, 

Dispark'd my parks and fell'd my forest woods, 

From my own windows torn my household coat, 

Raz'd out my imprese, leaving me no sign, 25 

Save men's opinions and my living blood, 

To show the world I am a gentleman. 

This and much more, much more than twice all this, 

Condemns you to the death. See them delivered over 

To execution and the hand of death. 30 

Bushy. More welcome is the stroke of death to me 
Than Bolingbroke to England. Lords, farewell. 

Green. My comfort is, that heaven will take our souls 
And plague injustice with the pains of hell. 

Bolingbroke. My Lord Northumberland, see them 
dispatch'd. 35 

[Exeunt Northum berland and others, with theprisoners] 
Uncle, you say the queen is at your house ; 

22. Whilst Qi I While Ff. 32. Lords, farewell Qi I Ff omit. 

24. From my Qi | From mine Ff. 35. [Exeunt . . .prisoners] Capell. 

22. signiories : manors, lordships. Also spelled ' seigniories,' 
' signories.' 

24. household coat : coat of arms blasoned in the stained glass. 

25. imprese : crest, heraldic device with motto. 

36. house. York's house was north of London, not far from 
St. Albans. 



72 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 

For God's sake, fairly let her be entreated : 
Tell her I send to her my kind commends ; 
Take special care my greetings be deliver'd. 

York. A gentleman of mine I have dispatch'd 40 

With letters of your love to her at large. 

Bolingbroke. Thanks, gentle uncle : come, lords, away, 
To fight with Glendower and his complices ; 
Awhile to work, and after holiday. [Exeunt'] 



Scene II. The coast of Wales. A castle in view 

Drums: flourish and colours. Enter King Richard, the 
Bishop of Carlisle, Aumerle, and Soldiers 

King Richard. Barkloughly castle call they this at hand ? 

Aumerle. Yea, my lord. How brooks your grace the air, 
After your late tossing on the breaking seas ? 

King Richard. Needs must I like it well : I weep for joy 
To stand upon my kingdom once again. 5 

Dear earth, I do salute thee with my hand, 
Though rebels wound thee with their horses' hoofs : 

The coast . . . view Capell. 37. God's Qi I Heauens Ff. 

37. entreated : treated. Cf. Matthew, xxii, 6. 

41. at large: in detail. Frequently so. Cf. V, vi, 10. 

1. Barkloughly. " They landed neere the Castell of Barclowlie." 
— Holinshed. ' Barclowlie ' was a scribal or typographical mistake 
for ' Hertlowle ' or ' Hertlow,' an Anglicized form of ' Harddlech ' 
(Harlech). 

2. brooks : likes. The common meaning is ' suffer,' ' tolerate.' 
4-6. " Shakespeare has carefully shown [in Richard] an intense 

love of his country, well knowing how that feeling would, in pure his- 
toric drama, redeem him in the hearts of the audience." — Coleridge. 



scene ii KING RICHARD THE SECOND 75 

As a long-parted mother with her child 

Plays fondly with her tears and smiles in meeting, 

So, weeping, smiling, greet I thee, my earth, 10 

And do thee favours with my royal hands. 

Feed not thy sovereign's foe, my gentle earth, 

Nor with thy sweets comfort his ravenous sense ; 

But let thy spiders, that suck up thy venom, 

And heavy-gaited toads lie in their way, 15 

Doing annoyance to the treacherous feet 

Which with usurping steps do trample thee : 

Yield stinging nettles to mine enemies ; 

And when they from thy bosom pluck a flower, 

Guard it, I pray thee, with a lurking adder, 20 

Whose double tongue may with a mortal touch 

Throw death upon thy sovereign's enemies. 

Mock not my senseless conjuration, lords : 

11. favours Qi | favour Ff. 

8. a long-parted mother : a mother long parted. Cf. Ill, i, 9. 
" Richard has a fine feeling for ' situations.' Without any making 
real to himself what God or what death is, he can put himself, if 
need be, in the appropriate attitude towards God and towards death. 
Instead of comprehending things as they are, and achieving heroic 
deeds, he satiates his heart with the grace, the tenderness, the beauty, 
or the pathos of situations. Life is to Richard a show, a succession 
of images ; and to put himself into accord with the aesthetic require- 
ments of his position is Richard's first necessity. He is equal to 
playing any part gracefully, which he is called upon by circum- 
stances to enact. But, when he has exhausted the aesthetic satis- 
faction to be derived from the situations of his life, he is left with 
nothing further to do." — Dowden. 

21. mortal: deadly. Cf. Coriolanus, II, iii, 115; Richard III, I, ii, 146. 

23. Mock not my adjuration as senseless. Or ' senseless ' may 
mean ' unperceived,' ' addressed to deaf ears.' 



74 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 

This earth shall have a feeling, and these stones 

Prove armed soldiers, ere her native king 25 

Shall falter under foul rebellion's arms. 

Carlisle. Fear not, my lord ; that Power that made you 
king 
Hath power to keep you king in spite of all : 
The means that heavens yield must be embrac'd, 
And not neglected ; else, if heaven would, 30 

And we will not, heaven's offer we refuse, 
The proffer'd means of succour and redress. 

Aumerle. He means, my lord, that we are too remiss ; 
Whilst Bolingbroke, through our security, 
Grows strong and great in substance and in power. 35 

King Richard. Discomfortable cousin ! know'st thou not 
That when the searching eye of heaven is hid, 
Behind the globe, that lights the lower world, 
Then thieves and robbers range abroad unseen 
In murders and in outrage, boldly here ; 40 

But when from under this terrestrial ball 
He fires the proud tops of the eastern pines, 
And darts his light through every guilty hole, 
Then murders, treasons, and detested sins 

29-32. The means . . . redress Qi 32. succour Pope I succors Qi. 

I Ff omit. 35. power Qi | friends Ff. 

29. heavens yield Qi | heaven 40. boldly Dyce | bouldy Qi | 
yields Pope. bloody Ff. 

30. neglected; else, if Pope I 43. light Qi | lightning Ff. 
neglected. Else Qi. 

34. security : overconfidence. Cf. ' securely,' II, i, 266, and see 
note. 

36. Discomfortable. Cf. 'comfortable,' II, ii, 76, and see note. 

38. that. The antecedent is ' the searching eye of heaven.' See 
Abbott, §§ 218, 262, 263. 



scene ii KING RICHARD THE SECOND 75 

(The cloak of night being pluck 'd from off their backs) 45 

Stand bare and naked, trembling at themselves ? 

So when this thief, this traitor, Bolingbroke, 

Who all this while hath revell'd in the night, 

Whilst we were wandering with the antipodes, 

Shall see us rising in our throne, the east, 50 

His treasons will sit blushing in his face, 

Not able to endure the sight of day, 

But self-affrighted tremble at his sin. 

Not all the water in the rough rude sea 

Can wash the balm from an anointed king ; 55 

The breath of worldly men cannot depose 

The deputy elected by the Lord : 

For every man that Bolingbroke hath press'd 

To lift shrewd steel against our golden crown, 

God for his Richard hath in heavenly pay 60 

A glorious angel : then, if angels fight, 

Weak men must fall, for heaven still guards the right. 

E?iter Salisbury 

Welcome, my lord : how far off lies your power ? 

Salisbury. Nor near nor farther off, my gracious lord, 
Than this weak arm : discomfort guides my tongue, 65 

And bids me speak of nothing but despair. 

49. Whilst . . . antipodes Qi | Ff 60. God Qi | Heauen Ff. 

omits. 63. Scene III Pope. 

54. " Richard's most characteristic and complete expression of 
his sense of the 'divinity that hedges ' a king." — Verity. 

58. press'd : impressed, enlisted by force. Cf. Coriolanus, I, ii, 9. 

59. shrewd: biting, sharp. Cf. 'shrewdly,' Hamlet, I, iv, 1. 

64. near : nearer. ' Near ' is properly the comparative of the Old 
English neah, ' nigh,' but came to be used as a positive. 



J6 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 

One day (too late, I fear, my noble lord) 

Hath clouded all thy happy days on earth : 

O, call back yesterday, bid time return, 

And thou shalt have twelve thousand fighting men ! 70 

To-day, to-day, unhappy day, too late, 

O'erthrows thy joys, friends, fortune, and thy state ; 

For all the Welshmen, hearing thou wert dead, 

Are gone to Bolingbroke, dispers'd, and fled. 

Aumerle. Comfort, my liege : why looks your grace so 
pale? 75 

King Richard. But now the blood of twenty thousand 
men 
Did triumph in my face, and they are fled ; 
And, till so much blood thither come again, 

Have I not reason to look pale and dead ? 
All souls that will be safe fly from my side, 80 

For time hath set a blot upon my pride. 

Aumerle. Comfort, my liege ; remember who you are. 

King Richard. I had forgot myself : am I not king ? 
Awake, thou coward majesty ! thou sleepest. 
Is not the king's name twenty thousand names ? 85 

Arm, arm, my name ! a puny subject strikes 
At thy great glory. Look not to the ground, 
Ye favourites of a king : are we not high ? 
High be our thoughts : I know my uncle York 89 

Hath power enough to serve our turn. But who comes here ? 

67. my noble lord Ff | me noble 84. coward Qi | sluggard Ff. 

Lord Qi I me, noble lord Camb. 85. twenty Qi | fortie Ff. 

70. twelve thousand. Holinshed says forty thousand. 
76. But now: just now. — twenty. Used indefinitely to express a 
large number. Cf. II, ii, 14; IV, i, 38, 59. 



scene ii KING RICHARD THE SECOND 77 

Enter Scroop 

Scroop. More help and happiness betide my liege 
Than can my care-tun'd tongue deliver him ! 

King Richard. Mine ear is open, and my heart prepar'd : 
The worst is worldly loss thou canst unfold. 
Say, is my kingdom lost ? why, 't was my care, 95 

And what loss is it to be rid of care ? 
Strives Bolingbroke to be as great as we ? 
Greater he shall not be ; if he serve God, 
We '11 serve Him too, and be his fellow so : 
Revolt our subjects ? that we cannot mend ; 100 

They break their faith to God as well as us : 
Cry woe, destruction, ruin, loss, decay ; 
The worst is death, and death will have his day. 

Scroop. Glad am I that your highness is so arm'd 
To bear the tidings of calamity : 105 

Like an unseasonable stormy day, 
Which makes the silver rivers drown their shores, 
As if the world were all dissolv'd to tears, 
So high above his limits, swells the rage 
Of Bolingbroke, covering your fearful land no 

With hard bright steel, and hearts harder than steel : 
White-beards have arm'd their thin and hairless scalps 
Against thy majesty ; boys with women's voices, 

91. Scene IV Pope. 112. White-beards Qi | White 

102. loss, decay Ff I and Decay Qq. Beares F1F2. 

107. makes Qi | make Ff. 113. boys Qi | and boyes Q2F1F2. 

91. Enter Scroop. Sir Stephen Scrope, a famous fighter, was the 
elder brother of the Earl of Wiltshire. He was one of the few that 
remained faithful to Richard II after his arrest. 

92. care-tun'd : attuned to a sorrowful note. 



yS THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 

Strive to speak big, and clap their female joints 

In stiff unwieldy arms against thy crown ; 115 

Thy very beadsmen learn to bend their bows 

Of double-fatal yew against thy state ; 

Yea, distaff-women manage rusty bills 

Against thy seat : both young and old rebel, 

And all goes worse than I have power to tell. 120 

King Richard. Too well, too well thou tell'st a tale so ill. 
Where is the Earl of Wiltshire ? where is Bagot ? 
What is become of Bushy ? where is Green ? 
That they have let the dangerous enemy 
Measure our confines with such peaceful steps? 125 

If we prevail, their heads shall pay for it : 
I warrant they have made peace with Bolingbroke. 

Scroop. Peace have they made with him indeed, my lord. 

King Richard. O, villains, vipers, damn'd without re- 
demption ! 
Dogs easily won to fawn on any man ! 130 

Snakes, in my heart-blood warm'd, that sting my heart ! 
Three Judases, each one thrice worse than Judas ! 
Would they make peace ? terrible hell make war 
Upon their spotted souls for this offence ! 

116. beadsmen. A 'beadsman 'was "a pensioner or almsman charged 
with the duty of praying for the souls of his benefactors." — Murray. 

117. double-fatal : doubly fatal. Because, as Warburton has pointed 
out, the leaves of the yew are poisonous, and the word is employed 
for instruments of death. 

118. bills. The 'bill ' was a kind of halberd. 

122. where is Bagot? Bagot had fled to Ireland to join Richard 
there (II, ii, 141). 

123-124. Here four favorites are named; in lines 132, 141, only 
three are referred to. 

128. Peace. A grim play on words. Cf. Macbeth, IV, iii, 178-179. 



scene ii KING RICHARD THE SECOND 79 

Scroop. Sweet love, I see, changing his property, 135 
Turns to the sourest and most deadly hate : 
Again uncurse their souls ; their peace is made 
With heads, and not with hands : those whom you curse 
Have felt the worst of death's destroying wound, 
And lie full low, grav'd in the hollow ground. 140 

Aumerle. Is Bushy, Green, and the Earl of Wiltshire 
dead? 

Scroop. Ay, all of them at Bristol lost their heads. 

Aumerle. Where is the duke my father with his power ? 

King Richard. No matter where ; of comfort no man 
speak : 
Let's talk of graves, of worms and epitaphs ; 145 

Make dust our paper, and with rainy eyes 
Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth. 
Let 's choose executors and talk of wills : 
And yet not so ; for what can we bequeath 
Save our deposed bodies to the ground ? 1 50 

Our lands, our lives, and all are Bolingbroke's, 
And nothing can we call our own but death, 
And that small model of the barren earth, 
Which serves as paste and cover to our bones. 
For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground, 155 

And tell sad stories of the death of kings : 
How some have been depos'd, some slain in war, 

139. wound Qi I hand Ff. 155. God's Qi | Heauens Ff, 

142. Ay I I Qi I Yea Ff. 

135. his : its. — property : character, distinctive quality. 

140. grav'd: entombed. Cf. Timon of Athens, IV, iii, 166. 

143. Scroop's answer to this question is prevented until line 194, 
where it makes a climax. 

153. model : " mould ; something that envelopes closely." — Murray. 



80 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 

Some haunted by the ghosts they have depos'd, 

Some poison'd by their wives, some sleeping kill'd, 

All murder'd : for within the hollow crown 160 

That rounds the mortal temples of a king, 

Keeps Death his court, and there the antic sits, 

Scoffing his state, and grinning at his pomp, 

Allowing him a breath, a little scene, 

To monarchize, be fear'd, and kill with looks, 165 

Infusing him with self and vain conceit, 

As if this flesh, which walls about our life, 

Were brass impregnable ; and humour'd thus, 

Comes at the last, and with a little pin 

Bores through his castle wall, and farewell king ! 170 

Cover your heads, and mock not flesh and blood 

With solemn reverence : throw away respect, 

Tradition, form, and ceremonious duty, 

For you have but mistook me all this while : 

I live with bread like you, feel want, 175 

Taste grief, need friends : subjected thus, 

162. antic I antick Pope | Antique Ff. 170. wall Qi | walls Ff. 

162-163. Cf. / Henry VI, IV, vii, 18: "Thou antic death, which 
laugh'st us here to scorn." The image may have been suggested 
by an emblematic wood-cut in Imagines Mortis, a facsimile of which 
is given in Douce's The Dance of Death. Death is there represented 
taking off an emperor's crown, not keeping his court in it. 

166. self and vain conceit : empty imaginings of himself. 

168-169. and humour'd thus, Comes : and he (the king) having 
been humour'd thus, death comes. 

175-176. As in the Quartos and Folios. Pope added ' like you ' 
after ' want ' and ' friends.' 

176. subjected. With a double meaning : subjected to the needs 
spoken of, and subjected to Bolingbroke. 



scene ii KING RICHARD THE SECOND 8 1 

How can you say to me, I am a king ? 

Carlisle. My lord, wise men ne'er sit and wail their woes, 
But presently prevent the ways to wail. 
To fear the foe, since fear oppresseth strength, 180 

Gives in your weakness strength unto your foe, 
And so your follies fight against yourself : 
Fear, and be slain ; no worse can come to fight, 
And fight and die is death destroying death, 
Where fearing dying pays death servile breath. 185 

Aumerle. My father hath a power : inquire of him, 
And learn to make a body of a limb. 

King Richard. Thou chid'st me well : proud Boling- 
broke, I come 
To change blows with thee for our day of doom. 
This ague fit of fear is over-blown ; 190 

An easy task it is to win our own. 
Say, Scroop, where lies our uncle with his power ? 
Speak sweetly, man, although thy looks be sour. 

Scroop. Men judge by the complexion of the sky 

The state and inclination of the day ; 195 

So may you by my dull and heavy eye : 

My tongue hath but a heavier tale to say. 
I play the torturer, by small and small 

178. sit and wail their woes Qi | 182. And . . . yourself Qi| Ff omit, 
wail their present woes Ff. 

179. presently : immediately. See note, I, iv, 52. 

183. to fight: of fighting, if you fight. See Abbott, § 356. 
184-185. To fight and die destroys by death the living death of the 
coward ; to live in constant dread of death makes man its slave. 

185. Where : whereas. 

186. of: concerning, about. Often so. See Abbott, §§ 173, 174. 

187. Turn my father's force into a complete army. 



82 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 

To lengthen out the worst that must be spoken : 

Your uncle York is join'd with Bolingbroke, 200 

And all your northern castles yielded up, 

And all your southern gentlemen in arms 

Upon his party. 

King Richard. Thou hast said enough. 
[To Aumerle] Beshrew thee, cousin, which didst lead me 

forth 
Of that sweet way I was in to despair ! 205 

What say you now ? What comfort have we now ? 
By heaven, I '11 hate him everlastingly 
That bids me be of comfort any more. 
Go to Flint castle : there I '11 pine away ; 
A king, woe's slave, shall kingly woe obey. 210 

That power I have, discharge, and let 'em go 
To ear the land that hath some hope to grow, 
For I have none : let no man speak again 
To alter this, for counsel is but vain. 

Aumerle. My liege, one word. 

King Richard. He does me double wrong 215 

That wounds me with the flatteries of his tongue. 
Discharge my followers : let them hence away 
From Richard's night, to Bolingbroke's fair day. [JSxeunt] 

203. party Qi | Faction Ff. 204. [To Aumerle] Theobald. 

203. Upon his party : on his side. Cf. Coriolanits, I, i, 238. 

204-205. Failing in the role of the heroic king, Richard now turns 
to that of the pathetic. 

209. Flint castle. In Wales, on the river Dee, about twelve miles 
from Chester. Its ruins are still to be seen. 

212. ear: plough, till. Cf. 1 Samuel, vin, 12. — hath . . . grow: 
is likely to prove productive. 



scene in KING RICHARD THE SECOND 83 

Scene III. Wales. Before Flint castle 

E?iter, with drum and colours, Bolingbroke, York, Nor- 
thumberland, Attendants, and forces 

Bolingbroke. So that by this intelligence we learn 
The Welshmen are dispers'd, and Salisbury 
Is gone to meet the king, who lately landed 
With some few private friends upon this coast. 

Northumberland. The news is very fair and good, my 
lord : 5 

Richard not far from hence hath hid his head. 

York. It would beseem the Lord Northumberland 
To say ' King Richard ' : alack the heavy day, 
When such a sacred king should hide his head ! 

Northumberland. Your grace mistakes : only to be brief, 
Left I his title out. 

York. The time hath been, n 

Would you have been so brief with him, he would 
Have been so brief with you, to shorten you, 
For taking so the head, your whole head's length. 

Bolingbroke. Mistake not, uncle, further than you should. 

York. Take not, good cousin, further than you should, 
Lest you mistake the heavens are o'er our heads. 17 

Bolingbroke. I know it, uncle, and oppose not myself 
Against their will. But who comes here ? 

Scene III | Scene V Pope. — Yorke, North Qi. 
Wales . . . castle Capell. 13. with you Ff I Qi omits. 

1. Enter . . . Attendants, and forces 17. o'er our heads | ouer our heads 

I Enter . . . Attendants Ff | Enter Bull, Qi | ore your head Ff . 

17. mistake : fail to understand that. Some editors follow Rowe's 
punctuation and insert a semicolon after ' mistake.' 



84 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 

Enter Percy 

Welcome, Harry : what, will not this castle yield ? 20 

Percy. The castle royally is mann'd, my lord, 
Against thy entrance. 

Bolingbroke. Royally ? 
Why, it contains no king ? 

Percy. Yes, my good lord, 

It doth contain a king : King Richard lies 25 

Within the limits of yon lime and stone ; 
And with him are the Lord Aumerle, Lord Salisbury, 
Sir Stephen Scroop, besides a clergyman 
Of holy reverence ; who, I cannot learn. 

Northumberland. O, belike it is the Bishop of Carlisle. 

Bolingbroke. Noble lords, 31 

Go to the rude ribs of that ancient castle ; 
Through brazen trumpet send the breath of parley 
Into his ruin'd ears, and thus deliver : 

Henry Bolingbroke 35 

On both his knees doth kiss King Richard's hand, 
And sends allegiance and true faith of heart 
To his most royal person ; hither come 
Even at his feet to lay my arms and power, 
Provided that my banishment repeal'd 4° 

And lands restor'd again be freely granted : 
If not, I '11 use th' advantage of my power, 
And lay the summer's dust with showers of blood 
Rain'd from the wounds of slaughter'd Englishmen ; 
The which, how far off from the mind of Bolingbroke 45 
It is, such crimson tempest should bedrench 

27. are the Qi I the Ff. 



SCENEIII KING RICHARD THE SECOND 85 

The fresh green lap of fair King Richard's land, 

My stooping duty tenderly shall show : 

Go signify as much, while here we march 

Upon the grassy carpet of this plain ; 50 

Let 's march without the noise of threat'ning drum, 

That from this castle's tatter'd battlements 

Our fair appointments may be well perus'd. 

Methinks King Richard and myself should meet 

With no less terror than the elements 55 

Of fire and water, when their thund'ring shock 

At meeting tears the cloudy cheeks of heaven : 

Be he the fire, I '11 be the yielding water ; 

The rage be his, whilst on the earth I rain 

My waters ; on the earth, and not on him : 60 

March on, and mark King Richard how he looks. 

Parle without, and answer within. Then a flourish. Enter 
on the walls, King Richard, the Bishop of Carlisle, 
Aumerle, Scroop, and Salisbury 

See, see, King Richard doth himself appear, 
As doth the blushing discontented sun 
From out the fiery portal of the east, 

56. shock Qi I smoake F1F2. 62. Scene VI Pope. 

59. whilst Qi I while Ff. 

49. Go signify. For the punctuation see note, I, iii, 103. 

52. tatter'd. Cf. 2 Henry IV, Induction, 35: "this worm-eaten 
hold of ragged stone." 

53. appointments: equipments. Cf. Hamlet, IV, iv, 16. — perus'd: 
surveyed, inspected. 

62-67. The Quartos and Folios give this speech to Bolingbroke. 
Hanmer gave it to York, an arrangement followed in earlier editions 
of Hudson's Shakespeare. 



86 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 

When he perceives the envious clouds are bent 65 

To dim his glory, and to stain the track 
Of his bright passage to the Occident. 

York. Yet looks he like a king : behold, his eye, 
As bright as is the eagle's, lightens forth 
Controlling majesty : alack, alack, for woe, 70 

That any harm should stain so fair a show ! 

King Richard. [To Northumberland] We are amaz'd, 
and thus long have we stood 
To watch the fearful bending of thy knee, 
Because we thought ourself thy lawful king : 
And if we be, how dare thy joints forget 75 

To pay their awful duty to our presence ? 
If we be not, show us the hand of God 
That hath dismiss'd us from our stewardship ; 
For well we know, no hand of blood and bone 
Can gripe the sacred handle of our sceptre, 80 

Unless he do profane, steal, or usurp ; 
And though you think that all, as you have done, 
Have torn their souls by turning them from us, 
And we are barren and bereft of friends ; 
Yet know, my master, God omnipotent, 85 

Is mustering in his clouds on our behalf 
Armies of pestilence, and they shall strike 
Your children, yet unborn and unbegot, 
That lift your vassal hands against my head, 
And threat the glory of my precious crown. 90 

Tell Bolingbroke (for yond methinks he stands) 

66. track Qi | tract Ff. Rowe. 

72. [To Northumberland] 91. stands Qi | is Ff. 

76. awful : full of awe, reverential. Cf. 2 Henry VI, V, i, 98. 



scene in KING RICHARD THE SECOND 87 

That every stride he makes upon my land 
Is dangerous treason : he is come to open 
The purple testament of bleeding war ; 
But ere the crown he looks for live in peace, 95 

Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers' sons 
Shall ill become the flower of England's face, 
Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace 
To scarlet indignation, and bedew 

Her pastures' grass with faithful English blood. 100 

Northumberland. The king of heaven forbid our lord 
the king 
Should so with civil and uncivil arms 
Be rush'd upon ! Thy thrice noble cousin, 
Harry Bolingbroke, doth humbly kiss thy hand ; 
And by the honourable tomb he swears, 105 

That stands upon your royal grandsire's bones ; 
And by the royalties of both your bloods, 
Currents that spring from one most gracious head ; 
And by the buried hand of warlike Gaunt ; 
And by the worth and honour of himself, no 

Comprising all that may be sworn or said, 
His coming hither hath no further scope 
Than for his lineal royalties, and to beg 
Enfranchisement immediate on his knees ; 

93. open Qi I ope Ff. 

94. testament : will. A fine figure. Bolingbroke is to open the 
'will' of war to see if a crown is left to him (line 95). 

97. the flower : the bloom, the beauty. Cf . Tivelfth Night, 1 1, iv, 39-40. 

105-106. tomb . . . bones. The tomb of Edward III, in Westmin- 
ster Abbey. 

114. Enfranchisement : restoration to his rights. 



88 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act in 

Which on thy royal party granted once, 1 1 5 

His glittering arms he will commend to rust, 

His barbed steeds to stables, and his heart 

To faithful service of your majesty : 

This swears he, as he is a prince, is just, 

And, as I am a gentleman, I credit him. 120 

King Richard. Northumberland, say thus the king 
returns : 
His noble cousin is right welcome hither ; 
And all the number of his fair demands 
Shall be accomplished without contradiction : 
With all the gracious utterance thou hast, 125 

Speak to his gentle hearing kind commends. 
We do debase ourselves, cousin, do we not, [To Aumerle] 
To look so poorly and to speak so fair ? 
Shall we call back Northumberland, and send 
Defiance to the traitor, and so die ? 1 30 

Aumerle. No, good my lord ; let 's fight with gentle 
words, 
Till time lend friends and friends their helpful swords. 

King Richard. O God, O God! that e'er this tongue 
of mine, 
That laid the sentence of dread banishment 
On yon proud man, should take it off again 135 

127. ourselves Qi | our selfe F1F2. — [To Aumerle] Rowe. 

115. party : part. The two words were interchangeable. Cf. Ill, 
ii, 203. 

116. commend: commit. — to rust. Cf. Ill, ii, 118. 

117. barbed : caparisoned with a barb, or bard. A barb (corrupted 
from ' bard ') was a protective covering for the breast and flanks of 
a war horse. 



scene in KING RICHARD THE SECOND 89 

With words of sooth ! O, that I were as great 

As is my grief, or lesser than my name ! 

Or that I could forget what I have been ! 

Or not remember what I must be now ! 

SwelPst thou, proud heart ? I '11 give thee scope to beat, 1 40 

Since foes have scope to beat both thee and me. 

Aumerle. Northumberland comes back from Bolingbroke. 

King Richard. What must the king do now ? must he 
submit ? 
The king shall do it : must he be depos'd ? 
The king shall be contented : must he lose 145 

The name of king ? o' God's name, let it go 
I '11 give my jewels for a set of beads, 
My gorgeous palace for a hermitage, 
My gay apparel for an almsman's gown, 
My figur'd goblets for a dish of wood, 150 

My sceptre for a palmer's walking-staff, 
My subjects for a pair of carved saints, 
And my large kingdom for a little grave, 
A little little grave, an obscure grave ; 

Or I '11 be buried in the king's highway, 1 55 

Some way of common trade, where subjects' feet 

136. sooth : blandishment, flattery. The original meaning is ' truth,' 
'verity.' 

147. set of beads : rosary. ' Bead ' originally meant ' a prayer.' 

149. Holinshed emphasizes Richard's extravagance in the matter 
of dress. 

151. palmer's. A ' palmer ' was " one who bore a palm-branch in 
memory of having been to the Holy Land." — Skeat. 

156. common trade : public thoroughfare. f Trade ' is identical ety- 
mologically with ' tread,' and an intermediate sense is ' path,' as in 
Surrey's translation of the yEneid, II, 587 : "A postern with a blind 
wicket ... A common trade to passe through Priames house." 



90 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 

May hourly trample on their sovereign's head ; 
For on my heart they tread now whilst I live ; 
And, buried once, why not upon my head ? 
Aumerle, thou weep'st, my tender-hearted cousin! 160 

We '11 make foul weather with despised tears ; 
Our sighs and they shall lodge the summer corn, 
And make a dearth in this revolting land : 
Or shall we play the wantons with our woes, 
And make some pretty match with shedding tears ? 1 65 

As thus, to drop them still upon one place, 
Till they have fretted us a pair of graves 
Within the earth ; and, therein laid, — * There lies 
Two kinsmen digg'd their graves with weeping eyes.' 
Would not this ill do well ? Well, well, I see 170 

I talk but idly, and you laugh at me. 
Most mighty prince, my Lord Northumberland, 
What says King Bolingbroke ? will his majesty 
Give Richard leave to live till Richard die ? 
You make a leg, and Bolingbroke says ay. 175 

Northumberland. My lord, in the base court he doth 
attend 
To speak with you : may it please you to come down ? 

162. lodge: beat down, lay flat. Cf. Macbeth, IV, i, 55. 

168-169. 'There lies . . . eyes.' An imaginary epitaph. — lies. The 
singular form before a plural noun was common after ' there ' and 
' here.' — digg'd : who digged. 

172-175. These lines are keenly ironical. 

175. make a leg : curtsy. A polite mode of assent. Cf. I, iv, 33. 

176. the base court : the outer (often lower) court. From the 
French basse com: v The interview between Richard and Northum- 
berland has taken place on the sort of balcony that there was at the 
back of the stage of an Elizabethan theatre." — Verity. 



scene in KING RICHARD THE SECOND 91 

King Richard. Down, down I come, like glist'ring 
Phaethon, 
Wanting the manage of unruly jades. 

In the base court ? Base court, where kings grow base, 180 
To come at traitors' calls, and do them grace, 
In the base court ? Come down ? down, court ! down, king ! 
For night-owls shriek where mounting larks should sing. 

[Exeunt from above'] 

Bolingbroke. What says his majesty ? 

Northumberland. Sorrow and grief of heart 

Makes him speak fondly, like a frantic man : 185 

Yet he is come. 

Enter King Richard and his attendants below 

Bolingbroke. Stand all apart, 
And show fair duty to his majesty. [He kneels down] 

My gracious lord, — 

King Richard. Fair cousin, you debase your princely 
knee 19° 

To make the base earth proud with kissing it : 
Me rather had my heart might feel your love 

183. [Exeunt . . . above] Capell. 188. [He kneels down] QilFf omit. 

186. Enter . . . below Capell. 

178. Phaethon (Greek (patdwv, 'shining') was the son of Helios, 
the sun god. Permitted one day to drive his father's horses, he lost 
control of them and would have set the world on fire had he not 
been struck down by a thunderbolt of Zeus. 

179. Wanting the manage : lacking the skill to govern. 

185. fondly: foolishly. Cf. IV, i, 72; King John, II, i, 258. 

192. Me rather had. A confusion of two forms of expression : ' me 
were liefer' (= 'to me it would be preferable') and 'I had rather' 
(= ' I should hold it preferable '). See Abbott, § 230. 



92 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 

Than my unpleas'd eye see your courtesy : 
Up, cousin, up ; your heart is up, I know, 
Thus high at least, although your knee be low. 195 

Bolingbroke. My gracious lord, I come but for mine own. 

King Richard. Your own is yours, and I am yours, and 
all. 

Bolingbroke. So far be mine, my most redoubted lord, 
As my true service shall deserve your love. 

King Richard. Well you deserve : they well deserve to 
have, 200 

That know the strong'st and surest way to get. 
Uncle, give me your hands ; nay, dry your eyes : 
Tears show their love, but want their remedies. 
Cousin, I am too young to be your father, 
Though you are old enough to be my heir. 205 

What you will have, I '11 give, and willing too ; 
For do we must what force will have us do. 
Set on towards London ; cousin, is it so ? 

Bolingbroke. Yea, my good lord. 

King Richard. Then I must not say no. 

^Flourish. Exeunt\ 

200. you deserve Qilyou deseru'd Ff. 202. hands Qi | hand Ff. 

195. Thus high. Touching (or pointing to) his head. 

203. want their remedies : lack their remedies, are unavailing. 

204-205. The two men were of the same age. 

209. " The duke with a high sharpe voyce bade bring forth the 
kings horses, and then two little nagges, not worth fortie franks, 
were brought forth; the king was set on the one, and the earle of 
Salisburie on the other : and thus the duke brought the king from 
Chester, where he was delivered to the duke of Gloucesters sonne 
and to the earle of Arundels sonne . . . who ledde him straight to 
the castle." — Stow's Annales (1580). 



SCENE IV KING RICHARD THE SECOND 93 

Scene IV. Langlcy. The Duke of York's garden 
Efiter the Queen and two Ladies 

Queen. What sport shall we devise here in this garden 
To drive away the heavy thought of care ? 

Lady. Madam, we '11 play at bowls. 

Queen. 'T will make me think the world is full of rubs, 
And that my fortune runs against the bias. 5 

Lady. Madam, we '11 dance. 

Queen. My legs can keep no measure in delight 
When my poor heart no measure keeps in grief : 
Therefore no dancing, girl ; some other sport. 

Lady. Madam, we '11 tell tales. 10 

Queen. Of sorrow or of joy ? 

Lady. Of either, madam. 

Queen. Of neither, girl, 
For if of joy, being altogether wanting, 
It doth remember me the more of sorrow ; 
Or if of grief, being altogether had, 15 

It adds more sorrow to my want of joy ; 
For what I have, I need not to repeat ; 
And what I want, it boots not to complain. 

Lady. Madam, I '11 sing. 

Scene IV | Scene VII Pope.— 11. joy Rowe | griefe QiFf. 

Langley . . . garden Capell. 

4. rubs : hindrances, obstacles. A term from bowling. 

5. bias. Another bowling term. The ' bias ' was the weight in- 
serted in the side of the bowl to make it incline in a certain way. 
Hence ' inclination,' ' tendency.' 

7. measure : dance. With a play on 'measure ' in line 8. 
15. being altogether had : wholly possessing me. 



94 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 

Queen. 'T is well that thou hast cause ; 

But thou shouldst please me better, wouldst thou weep. 20 

Lady. I could weep, madam, would it do you good. 

Queen. And I could sing, would weeping do me good, 
And never borrow any tear of thee. 

Enter a Gardener, and two Servants 

But stay, here come the gardeners : 

Let's step into the shadow of these trees : 25 

My wretchedness unto a row of pins, 

They '11 talk of state ; for every one doth so 

Against a change ; woe is forerun with woe. 

[Queen and Ladies retire] 
Gardener. Go bind thou up yon dangling apricocks, 
Which like unruly children make their sire 30 

Stoop with oppression of their prodigal weight : 
Give some supportance to the bending twigs. 
Go thou, and like an executioner 
Cut off the heads of too fast growing sprays, 
That look too lofty in our commonwealth : 35 

All must be even in our government. 
You thus employ'd, I will go root away 
The noisome weeds, which without profit suck 
The soil's fertility from wholesome flowers. 

24. come Q1F2 I comes F1F3F4. 34- tQ o Ff | two Qi. 

28. [Queen . . . retire] Pope. 38, 5°- which Qi | that Ff. 

22. If weeping did me good (I have wept so much), I should even 
be able to sing, without borrowing any tear of thee. 
26. She will wager her great grief against a trifle. 

28. Against: in anticipation of. See Abbott, § 142. 

29. apricocks: apricots. Ci.AMidsnm?nerA T ight''sDream,XY\,\,iC)(). 



scene iv KING RICHARD THE SECOND 95 

Servant. Why should we in the compass of a pale 40 
Keep law and form and due proportion, 
Showing as in a model our firm estate, 
When our sea-walled garden, the whole land, 
Is full of weeds, her fairest flowers chok'd up, 
Her fruit-trees all unprun'd, her hedges ruin'd, 45 

Her knots disorder'd and her wholesome herbs 
Swarming with caterpillars ? 

Gardener. Hold thy peace : 

He that hath suffer'd this disorder'd spring 
Hath now himself met with the fall of leaf : 
The weeds which his broad-spreading leaves did shelter, 50 
That seem'd in eating him to hold him up, 
Are pluck 'd up root and all by Bolingbroke ; 
I mean the Earl of Wiltshire, Bushy, Green. 

Servant. What, are they dead ? 

Gardener. They are ; and Bolingbroke 

Hath seiz'd the wasteful king. O, what pity is it, 55 

That he had not so trimm'd and dress'd his land 
As we this garden ! We at time of year 
Do wound the bark, the skin of our fruit-trees, 
Lest, being over-proud in sap and blood, 

52. pluck'd Qi I pull'd Ff. I garden at ... Do wound Qi | Gar- 

57, 58. garden! We ... Do wound den, at . . . And wound Ff. 

40. pale: inclosure. Cf. The Comedy of Errors, II, i, 100. 

46. knots : flower beds arranged in fantastic figures. Cf. ' curious- 
knotted garden,' Love's Labour's Lost, I, i, 249-250 ; Milton, Paradise 
Lost, IV, 241-243 : 

Flowers worthy of Paradise, which not nice art 
In beds and curious knots, but Nature boon 
Pour'd forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain. 

57. at time of year : in due season. 



96 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 

With too much riches it confound itself : 60 

Had he done so to great and growing men, 

They might have liv'd to bear, and he to taste 

Their fruits of duty : superfluous branches 

We lop away, that bearing boughs may live : 

Had he done so himself had borne the crown, 65 

Which waste of idle hours hath quite thrown down. 

Servant. What, think you the king shall be depos'd ? 

Gardener. Depress'd he is already, and depos'd 
'T is doubt he will be : letters came last night 
To a dear friend of the good Duke of York's, 70 

That tell black tidings. 

Queen. O, I am press'd to death through want of speak- 
ing ! [ Coming forward\ 
Thou, old Adam's likeness, set to dress this garden, 
How dares thy harsh rude tongue sound this unpleasing news ? 
What Eve, what serpent, hath suggested thee 75 
To make a second fall of cursed man ? 
Why dost thou say King Richard is depos'd ? 
Dar'st thou, thou little better thing than earth, 
Divine his downfall ? Say, where, when, and how 
Cam'st thou by this ill tidings ? speak, thou wretch. 80 

66. waste of Qi | waste and Ff. 69. doubt Qi | doubted Ff. 

67. you QlFf I you then Pope 72. [Coming forward] Globe. 
Globe. 80. Cam'st Ff I Canst Qi. 

60. confound itself : destroy itself. With ' confound ' cf. IV, i, 141. 

69. 'T is doubt : there is fear, suspicion. Cf. II, i, 299 ; j Henry VI, 
IV, viii, 37 : " The doubt is, that he will seduce the rest." 

72. press'd to death. The allusion is to the peine forte et dure, a 
punishment inflicted on those who refused to plead when brought 
to trial. Cf. Much Ado About Nothing, III, i, 76. 

80. this ill tidings. See note, II, i, 272. 



scene iv KING RICHARD THE SECOND 97 

Gardener. Pardon me, madam : little joy have I 
To breathe this news, yet what I say is true : 
King Richard, he is in the mighty hold 
Of Bolingbroke ; their fortunes both are weigh 'd : 
In your lord's scale is nothing but himself, 85 

And some few vanities that make him light ; 
But in the balance of great Bolingbroke, 
Besides himself, are all the English peers, 
And with that odds he weighs King Richard down. 
Post you to London, and you '11 find it so, 90 

I speak no more than every one doth know. 

Queen. Nimble mischance, that art so light of foot, 
Doth not thy embassage belong to me, 
And am I last that knows it ? O, thou think 'st 
To serve me last, that I may longest keep 95 

Thy sorrow in my breast ! come, ladies, go, 
To meet at London London's king in woe. 
What, was I born to this, that my sad look 
Should grace the triumph of great Bolingbroke ? 
Gardener, for telling me these news of woe, 100 

Pray God the plants thou graft'st may never grow. 

[Exeunt Queen and Ladies] 

Gardener. Poor Queen ! so that thy state might be no 
worse, 
I would my skill were subject to thy curse : 
Here did she fall a tear ; here in this place 
I '11 set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace : 105 

Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen 
In the remembrance of a weeping queen. [Exeunt] 

82. this Qi I these Ff. 101 Pray God Qi | I would Ff. 

100. these Qi I this Ff. 104. fall Qi | drop Ff. 



ACT IV 
Scene I. Westminster Hall 

Enter, as to the Parliament, Bolingbroke, Aumerle, 
Northumberland, Percy, Fitzwater, Surrey, the 
Bishop of Carlisle, the Abbot of Westminster, and 
another Lord, Herald, Officers, and Bagot 

Bolingbroke. Call forth Bagot. 
Now, Bagot, freely speak thy mind ; 
What thou dost know of noble Gloucester's death ; 
Who wrought it with the king, and who perform'd 
The bloody office of his timeless end. 5 

Bagot. Then set before my face the Lord Aumerle. 

Bolingbroke. Cousin, stand forth, and look upon that man. 

Bagot. My Lord Aumerle, I know your daring tongue 
Scorns to unsay what once it hath deliver 'd. 
In that dead time when Gloucester's death was plotted, 10 

Westminster Hall Malone. 9. once it hath Qi | it hath once Ff. 

Westminster Hall. This hall had been rebuilt by Richard himself. 
The first meeting of Parliament in it was that in which he was for- 
mally deposed. Shakespeare combines the proceedings of two dis- 
tinct Parliaments, that of September 30, 1399, convened by Henry IV 
on taking the crown, and that of October 6, when the Bishop of 
Carlisle made his speech (1 14-149) and Aumerle was charged by 
the Lords. 

5. timeless : untimely. The usual sense in Shakespeare. 

10. dead time. Either ' deadly time ' or ' time gloomy as death.' 
93 



scene I KING RICHARD THE SECOND 



99 



I heard you say, ' Is not my arm of length, 

That reacheth from the restful English court 

As far as Calais, to mine uncle's head ? ' 

Amongst much other talk, that very time, 

I heard you say that you had rather refuse 15 

The offer of an hundred thousand crowns 

Than Bolingbroke's return to England ; 

Adding withal, how blest this land would be 

In this your cousin's death. 

Aumerle. Princes and noble lords, 

What answer shall I make to this base man ? 20 

Shall I so much dishonour my fair stars, 
On equal terms to give him chastisement ? 
Either I must, or have mine honour soil'd 
With the attainder of his sland'rous lips. 
There is my gage, the manual seal of death, 25 

That marks thee out for hell : I say, thou liest, 
And will maintain what thou hast said is false 
In thy heart-blood, though being all too base 
To stain the temper of my knightly sword. 

Bolingbroke. Bagot, forbear ; thou shalt not take it up. 

13. Calais | Callice Qi | Callis Ff. 26. I say Qi | Ff omit. 

22. him Ff I them Qi. 

12. restful : full of repose, peaceful. 

17. ' England ' is usually trisyllabic in pre-Shakespearian drama. 

21. my fair stars : stars propitious at my birth. Common speech 
still retains traces of the old notion that men's fortunes and char- 
acters were signified or governed by the stars under which they 
were born. ' Ascendancy,' ' aspect,' ' influence,' ' predominance,' are 
among the words of astrological origin. 

24. attainder: condemnation, foul accusation. Properly a legal term. 

25. manual seal of death : death warrant. 



IOO THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

Aumerle. Excepting one, I would he were the best 31 
In all this presence that hath mov'd me so. 

Fitzwater. If that thy valour stand on sympathy, 
There is my gage, Aumerle, in gage to thine : 
By that fair sun which shows me where thou stand'st, 35 
I heard thee say, and vauntingly thou spak'st it, 
That thou wert cause of noble Gloucester's death. 
If thou deny'st it twenty times, thou liest, 
And I will turn thy falsehood to thy heart, 
Where it was forged, with my rapier's point. 40 

Aumerle. Thou dar'st not, coward, live to see that day. 

Fitzwater. Now by my soul, I would it were this hour. 

Aumerle. Fitzwater, thou art damn'd to hell for this. 

Percy. Aumerle, thou liest ; his honour is as true 
In this appeal as thou art all unjust : 45 

And that thou art so, there I throw my gage, 
To prove it on thee to th' extremest point 
Of mortal breathing : seize it, if thou dar'st. 

Aumerle. And if I do not, may my hands rot off, 
And never brandish more revengeful steel 50 

Over the glittering helmet of my foe ! 

Another Lord. I task the earth to the like, forsworn 
Aumerle ; 

33. sympathy Qi | sympathize Fi. 49- And if QiFf I An if Globe. 

35. which Qi I that Ff. 52-59- Another Lord. I task 

41. that day Qi | the day Ff. ... as you Qi | Ff omit. 

33. If your bravery depends on equality of rank. By the laws of 
chivalry, a man was not bound to fight with one of lower rank. 

40. rapier. Not in use in England in Richard's time. Shakespeare 
is indifferent to such anachronisms. 

45. appeal : impeachment. Cf. I, i, 4. 

52. I task . . . like : I burden the earth with the weight of like gages. 



SCENE i KING RICHARD THE SECOND ioi 

And spur thee on with full as many lies 

As may be holloa'd in thy treacherous ear 

From sun to sun ; there is my honour's pawn ; 55 

Engage it to the trial, if thou darest. 

Aumerle. Who sets me else ? by heaven, I '11 throw at all : 
I have a thousand spirits in one breast, 
To answer twenty thousand such as you. 

Surrey. My Lord Fitzwater, I do remember well 60 

The very time Aumerle and you did talk. 

Fitzwater. 'T is very true : you were in presence then, 
And you can witness with me, this is true. 

Surrey. As false, by heaven, as heaven itself is true. 

Fitzwater. Surrey, thou liest 

Surrey. Dishonourable boy ! 65 

That lie shall lie so heavy on my sword, 
That it shall render vengeance and revenge, 
Till thou the lie-giver and that lie do lie 
In earth as quiet as thy father's skull : 

In proof whereof, there is my honour's pawn ; 70 

Engage it to the trial, if thou dar'st. 

Fitzwater. How fondly dost thou spur a forward horse ! 
If I dare eat, or drink, or breathe, or live, 
I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness, 

54. As Capell | As it Qi. 62. 'Tis Qi | My Lord, 'T is Ff. 

55. sun to sun Capell | sinne to 70. my Qi | mine Ff. 
sinne Qi. 

55. sun to sun. Either ' sunrise to sunset ' or ' day to day.' 

57. sets me : puts down a stake with me, offers me a challenge. 

62. in presence : in attendance. Cf. I, iii, 249, 289, and see notes. 

65. boy. Contemptuously. Fitzwater was thirty-one years old. 

72. fondly: foolishly. As in III, iii, 185. 

74. in a wilderness : alone, where no help can be had. 



102 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

And spit upon him, whilst I say he lies, 75 

And lies, and lies : there is my bond of faith, 

To tie thee to my strong correction. 

As I intend to thrive in this new world, 

Aumerle is guilty of my true appeal. 

Besides, I heard the banish'd Norfolk say, 80 

That thou, Aumerle, didst send two of thy men 

To execute the noble duke at Calais. 

Aumerle. Some honest Christian trust me with a gage, 
That Norfolk lies : here do I throw down this, 
If he may be repeal'd, to try his honour. 85 

Bolingbroke. These differences shall all rest under gage 
Till Norfolk be repeal'd : repeal'd he shall be, 
And, though mine enemy, restor'd again 
To all his lands and signiories : when he 's return'd, 
Against Aumerle we will enforce his trial. 90 

Carlisle. That honourable day shall ne'er be seen. 
Many a time hath banish'd Norfolk fought 
For Jesu Christ in glorious Christian field, 
Streaming the ensign of the Christian cross 
Against black pagans, Turks, and Saracens ; 95 

And toil'd with works of war, retir'd himself 
To Italy, and there at Venice gave 

76. my Ff I Qi omits. 

78. in this new world : under the new king (Henry IV). 

84. this. According to Holinshed, Aumerle throws down a hood, 
which he had borrowed, both his gloves having been thrown down 
before. 

85. repeal'd : recalled from exile. Cf. II, ii, 49. 

89. signiories : manors, estates. Cf. Ill, i, 22, and see note. 
96. toil'd : exhausted. — retir'd himself : retired. Cf. ' complain 
myself,' I, ii, 42. 



scene i KING RICHARD THE SFXOND 103 

His body to that pleasant country's earth, 
And his pure soul unto his captain Christ, 
Under whose colours he had fought so long. 100 

Bolingbroke. Why, bishop, is Norfolk dead ? 

Carlisle. As surely as I live, my lord. 

Bolingbroke. Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to 
the bosom 
Of good old Abraham ! Lords appellants, 
Your differences shall all rest under gage 105 

Till we assign you to your days of trial. 

Enter York, attended 

York. Great Duke of Lancaster, I come to thee 
From plume-pluck 'd Richard, who with willing soul 
Adopts thee heir, and his high sceptre yields 
To the possession of thy royal hand : no 

Ascend his throne, descending now from him ; 
And long live Henry, of that name the fourth ! 

Bolingbroke. In God's name I '11 ascend the regal throne. 

Carlisle. Marry, God forbid ! 
Worst in this royal presence may I speak, 1 t 5 

Yet best beseeming me to speak the truth. 
Would God that any in this noble presence 
Were enough noble to be upright judge 
Of noble Richard ! then true noblesse would 

102. As surely Qi | As sure Ff. fourth of that name Qi. 
107. Scene II Pope. — Enter . . . 114, 133. God Qi | Heauen Ff. 

attended CapeW I Enter Yorke QiFf. 119. noblesse Qi | noblenesse Ff. 

112. of that name the fourth Ff | 

115-116. Worst: least worthy (in rank). — best: most worthy (as 
representing the Church). — beseeming me . . . truth: since it be- 
comes me to speak the truth. 



104 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

Learn him forbearance from so foul a wrong. 120 

What subject can give sentence on his king ? 

And who sits here that is not Richard's subject ? 

Thieves are not judg'd but they are by to hear, 

Although apparent guilt be seen in them ; 

And shall the figure of God's majesty, 125 

His captain, steward, deputy elect, 

Anointed, crowned, planted many years, 

Be judg'd by subject and inferior breath, 

And he himself not present ? O, forfend it, God, 

That in a Christian climate souls refin'd 130 

Should show so heinous, black, obscene a deed ! 

I speak to subjects, and a subject speaks, 

Stirr'd up by God, thus boldly for his king. 

My lord of Hereford here, whom you call king, 

Is a foul traitor to proud Hereford's king ; 135 

And if you crown him, let me prophesy, 

The blood of English shall manure the ground, 

And future ages groan for this foul act : 

Peace shall go sleep with Turks and infidels, 

And in this seat of peace tumultuous wars 140 

Shall kin with kin and kind with kind confound : 

Disorder, horror, fear, and mutiny 

Shall here inhabit, and this land be call'd 

The field of Golgotha and dead men's skulls. 

129. forfend Qi | forbid Ff. 138. this Qi | his Ff. 

120. Learn : teach. Often so. Still common in dialect. 
124. apparent: manifest, evident. So in I, i, 13. Cf. Richard III, 
III, v, 30. 

130. climate : clime, region. Cf. ' fertile climate,' Othello, I, i, 70. 

131. obscene : odious, foul. Cf. Love's Labour's Lost, I, i, 244. 



scene I KING RICHARD THE SECOND 105 

O, if you raise this house against this house, 145 

It will the woefullest division prove 

That ever fell upon this cursed earth. 

Prevent it, resist it, let it not be so, 

Lest child, child's children, cry against you * Woe ! ' 

Northumberland. Well have you argu'd, sir ; and, for 
your pains, 150 

Of capital treason we arrest you here. 
My Lord of Westminster, be it your charge 
To keep him safely till his day of trial. 
May it please you, lords, to grant the commons' suit ? 1 54 

Bolingbroke. Fetch hither Richard, that in common view 
He may surrender ; so we shall proceed 
Without suspicion. 

York. I will be his conduct. [Exit] 

Bolingbroke. Lords, you that here are under our arrest, 
Procure your sureties for your days of answer. 
Little are we beholding to your love, 160 

And little look'd for at your helping hands. 

Re-enter York, with Richard, and Officers bearing the regalia 

King Richard. Alack, why am I sent for to a king, 
Before I have shook off the regal thoughts 

145. raise Qi | reare Ff. 162. Scene III Pope. — Re-enter 

148. let Qi I and let Fi. ... Capell I Enter Richard and Yorke 

154-318. May it . . . king's fall | Ff. 
Ql omits. 

154-318. The deposition scene was printed for the first time in 
the Third Quarto (1608). See Introduction, Early Editions. 

157. conduct: escort. Ql. Romeo and Juliet, III, i, 129. 

160. beholding : beholden. Cf. Julius Ccesar, III, ii, 70. Shake- 
speare does not use the passive form ' beholden.' 



106 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE aCt iv 

Wherewith I reign'd ? I hardly yet have learn 'd 

To insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my knee. 165 

Give sorrow leave awhile to tutor me 

To this submission. Yet I well remember 

The favours of these men : were they not mine ? 

Did they not sometime cry r all hail ! ' to me ? 

So Judas did to Christ : but he in twelve, 1 70 

Found truth in all but one ; I, in twelve thousand, none. 

God save the king ! Will no man say, Amen ? 

Am I both priest and clerk ? well then, Amen. 

God save the king ! although I be not he ; 

And yet, Amen, if heaven do think him me. 175 

To do what service am I sent for hither ? 

York. To do that office of thine own good will 
Which tired majesty did make thee offer, 
The resignation of thy state and crown 
To Henry Bolingbroke. 180 

King Richard. Give me the crown. Here, cousin, seize 
the crown ; 
Here cousin ; 

On this side my hand, and on that side thine. 
Now is this golden crown like a deep well, 
That owes two buckets, filling one another, 185 

The emptier ever dancing in the air, 
The other down, unseen and full of water : 

165. knee Ff | limbes Q3Q4 I limbs 166. tutor | tuture Fi | returne F2. 

Globe. 183. thine Ff | yours Q3 Globe. 

168. favours : faces, countenances. Cf. As You Like It, IV, iii, 87. 

173. clerk. The parish clerk led the responses in the church service. 

181. seize the crown. Sometimes printed as a stage direction. 

185. owes: owns. Often so. Cf. King John, IV, i, 123. 



scene i KING RICHARD THE SECOND 107 

That bucket down and full of tears am I, 

Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount up on high. 189 

Bolingbroke. I thought you had been willing to resign. 

King Richard. My crown I am, but still my griefs are 
mine : 
You may my glories and my state depose, 
But not my griefs ; still am I king of those. 

Bolingbroke. Part of your cares you give me with your 
crown. 

King Richard. Your cares set up do not pluck my cares 
down. 195 

My care is loss of care, by old care done ; 
Your care is gain of care, by new care won : 
The cares I give I have, though given away ; 
They tend the crown, yet still with me they stay. 199 

Bolingbroke. Are you contented to resign the crown ? 

King Richard. Ay, no ; no, ay ; for I must nothing be ; 
Therefore no, no, for I resign to thee. 
Now mark me how I will undo myself : 
I give this heavy weight from off my head, 
And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand, 205 

The pride of kingly sway from out my heart ; 
With mine own tears I wash away my balm, 
With mine own hands I give away my crown, 
With mine own tongue deny my sacred state, 
With mine own breath release all duteous oaths; 210 



199. tend F2F3F4 I 'tend Fi. 210. duteous oaths Ff I duties rites 

201. Ay, no; no, ay | I, no ; no, I Q3Q4. 
F1F2. 

201. Ay. The old spelling ' I ' shows the word play involved. 
207. balm: oil of consecration. Cf. Ill, ii, 54-55- 



108 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

All pomp and majesty I do forswear ; 

My manors, rents, revenues I forego ; 

My acts, decrees, and statutes I deny : 

God pardon all oaths that are broke to me ! 

God keep all vows unbroke are made to thee ! 215 

Make me, that nothing have, with nothing griev'd, 

And thou with all pleas'd, that hast all achiev'd ! 

Long mayst thou live in Richard's seat to sit, 

And soon lie Richard in an earthy pit ! 

God save King Henry, unking'd Richard says, 220 

And send him many years of sunshine days ! 

What more remains ? 

Northumberland. No more but that you read 
These accusations, and these grievous crimes 
Committed by your person and your followers 
Against the state, and profit of this land ; 225 

That, by confessing them, the souls of men 
May deem that you are worthily depos'd. 

King Richard. Must I do so ? and must I ravel out 
My weav'd-up follies ? Gentle Northumberland, 
If thy offences were upon record, 230 

Would it not shame thee in so fair a troop 
To read a lecture of them ? If thou wouldst, 
There shouldst thou find one heinous article, 
Containing the deposing of a king, 

215. are made Ff | that swear Q3 229. follies | follyes Ff I folly 

Q4 Globe. Collier Globe. 

220. Henry Ff | Harry Q3 Globe. 

212. revenues. In Shakespeare are the two pronunciations: 
' rev'enue,' as in I, iv, 46; II, i, 161, 226; and ' reven'ue ' as here. 
The latter is still an English parliamentary usage. 



scene i KING RICHARD THE SECOND 109 

And cracking the strong warrant of an oath, 235 

Mark'd with a blot, damn'd in the book of heaven. 
Nay, all of you that stand and look upon me, 
Whilst that my wretchedness doth bait myself, 
Though some of you with Pilate wash your hands, 
Showing an outward pity ; yet you Pilates 240 

Have here deliver'd me to my sour cross, 
And water cannot wash away your sin. 

Northumberland. My lord, dispatch ; read o'er these 
articles. 

King Richard. Mine eyes are full of tears, I cannot see : 
And yet salt water blinds them not so much 245 

But they can see a sort of traitors here. 
Nay, if I turn mine eyes upon myself, 
I find myself a traitor with the rest ; 
For I have given here my soul's consent 
T' undeck the pompous body of a king ; 250 

Made glory base, a sovereignty a slave ; 
Proud majesty a subject, state a peasant. 

Northumberland. My lord — 

King Richard. No lord of thine, thou haught insulting 
man; 
Nor no man's lord ; I have no name, no title : 255 

No, not that name was given me at the font, 
But 't is usurp'd : alack the heavy day, 

237. upon me Ff | upon O3 Globe. eraigntie Q3 Globe. 

251. a sovereignty Fi | and Sou- 255. Nor Q3Q4 I No, nor Ff. 

238. bait: set upon, worry (as by dogs). 

243. these articles : this indictment (drawn up in articles). 

246. sort: crowd, pack. Cf. Richard III, V, iii, 316. 

250. undeck : divest of ornament. — pompous : stately. 



IIO THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

That I have worn so many winters out, 

And know not now what name to call myself ! 

O, that I were a mockery king of snow, 260 

Standing before the sun of Bolingbroke, 

To melt myself away in water-drops ! 

Good king, great king, and yet not greatly good, 

And if my word be sterling yet in England, 

Let it command a mirror hither straight, 265 

That it may show me what a face I have, 

Since it is bankrupt of his majesty. 

Bolingbroke. Go, some of you, and fetch a looking-glass. 

[Exit an Attendant] 

Northumberland. Read o'er this paper while the glass 
doth come. 

King Richard. Fiend, thou torment'st me ere I come 
to hell ! 270 

Bolingbroke. Urge it no more, my Lord Northumberland. 

Northumberland. The commons will not then be satisfied. 

King Richard. They shall be satisfied : I '11 read enough, 
When I do see the very book indeed 
Where all my sins are writ, and that 's myself. 275 

Re-enter Attendant, with a glass 

Give me that glass, and therein will I read. 
No deeper wrinkles yet ? hath sorrow struck 
So many blows upon this face of mine, 

264. And if Ff | An if Theobald 270. torment'st Rowe | torments 

Globe. Ff. 

268. [Exit . . .] Capell. 276. Re-enter Attendant . . . Ca- 

pell I Enter one . . . Ff. 

267. his : its. Cf. II, i, 119, and see note. 



scene I KING RICHARD THE SECOND III 

And made no deeper wounds ? O flattering glass, 

Like to my followers in prosperity, 280 

Thou dost beguile me ! Was this face the face 

That every day under his household roof 

Did keep ten thousand men ? Was this the face, 

That like the sun did make beholders wink ? 

Is this the face, which fac'd so many follies, 285 

That was at last out-fac'd by Bolingbroke ? 

A brittle glory shineth in this face, 

As brittle as the glory is the face, 

[Dashes the glass against the ground \ 
For there it is, crack'd in an hundred shivers. 
Mark, silent king, the moral of this sport, 290 

How soon my sorrow hath destroy'd my face. 

Bolingbroke. The shadow of your sorrow hath destroy'd 
The shadow of your face. 

King Richard. Say that again. 

The shadow of my sorrow ? ha ! let 's see ; 
'T is very true, my grief lies all within ; 295 

And these external manners of laments 
Are merely shadows to the unseen grief, 
That swells with silence in the tortur'd soul. 

285. Is . . . which Ff I Was . . . 288. [Dashes . . .] Theobald, 
that Q3 Globe. 296. manners F2F3F4 1 manner Fi. 

286. That Ff I And Q 3 Globe. 

281-283. Was this face . . . men? A reminiscence of the great lines by 
Marlowe, in Dr. Faustus, where a vision of Helen of Troy is called up : 

Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships, 
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium? 

292-293. The shadow . . . your face : your sentimental show of 
grief has destroyed your picture in the glass. 

297. to: in comparison with. Cf. Hamlet, I, ii, 140. See Abbott, §187. 



112 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

There lies the substance : and I thank thee, king, 

For thy great bounty, that not only givest 300 

Me cause to wail, but teachest me the way 

How to lament the cause. I '11 beg one boon, 

And then be gone, and trouble you no more. 

Shall I obtain it ? 

Bolingbroke. Name it, fair cousin. 

King Richard. f Fair cousin ' ? I am greater than a king : 
For when I was a king, my flatterers 306 

Were then but subjects ; being now a subject, 
I have a king here to my flatterer : 
Being so great, I have no need to beg. 

Bolingbroke. Yet ask. 310 

King Richard. And shall I have ? 

Bolingbroke. You shall. 

King Richard. Then give me leave to go. 

Bolingbroke. Whither ? 

King Richard. Whither you will, so I were from your 
sights. 315 

Bolingbroke. Go, some of you, convey him to the Tower. 

King Richard. O, good ! convey ? conveyers are you all, 
That rise thus nimbly by a true king's fall. 

\Exeunt King Richard, some Lords, and a Guard] 

Bolingbroke. On Wednesday next we solemnly set down 

Our coronation : lords, prepare yourselves. 320 

\Exeunt all except the Bishop of Carlisle, the 

Abbot of Westminster, and Aumerle] 

319-320. On . . . yourselves Ff I Coronation, Lords be ready all Qi. 
Let it be so, and loe on Wednesday 320. \Exeunt . . .] Camb | Exeunt, 

next, We solemnly proclaime our Manent West. Caleil, Aumerle Qi. 

317. convey. A euphemism for 'steal.' A play on the word in line 3 16. 



scene i KING RICHARD THE SECOND 113 

Abbot. A woeful pageant have we here beheld. 

Carlisle. The woe 's to come ; the children yet unborn 
Shall feel this day as sharp to them as thorn. 

Aumerle. You holy clergymen, is there no plot 
To rid the realm of this pernicious blot ? 325 

Abbot. My lord, 
Before I freely speak my mind herein, 
You shall not only take the sacrament 
To bury mine intents, but also to effect 
Whatever I shall happen to devise. 330 

I see your brows are full of discontent, 
Your hearts of sorrow and your eyes of tears : 
Come home with me to supper, and I '11 lay 
A plot shall show us all a merry day. [Exeunt] 

321. Scene IV Pope. . . . day Pope I He lay a plot, Shall 

' 332. hearts | harts Qi | heart Ff. ... day QFf. 

333-334- and I '11 lay A plot shall 

324. is there no plot : can there be no possible contrivance. 



ACT V 

Scene I. London. A street leading to the Tower 

Enter Queen and Ladies 

Queen. This way the king will come ; this is the way 
To Julius Caesar's ill-erected tower, 
To whose flint bosom my condemned lord 
Is doom'd a prisoner by proud Bolingbroke. 
Here let us rest, if this rebellious earth 5 

Have any resting for her true king's queen. 

Enter Richard and Guard 

But soft, but see, or rather do not see, 

My fair rose wither : yet look up, behold, 

That you in pity may dissolve to dew, 

And wash him fresh again with true-love tears. 10 

Ah, thou, the model where old Troy did stand, 

Thou map of honour, thou King Richard's tomb, 

London . . . Tower Malone. — Queene with her attendants Qi. 
Enter . . . Ladies Ff | Enter the 

2. Tradition ascribes to Julius Caesar the original building of the 
Tower. Cf. Richard III, III, i, 68-74. — ill-erected. Because of the 
purposes for which it was used. 

11. model . . . stand : " pattern of ruined majesty. Troy was used 
. . . as the type of regal grandeur." — Grant White. 

12. map : picture, image, embodiment. " Common in the seven- 
teenth century." — Murray. — thou King Richard's tomb. Cf. I, iii, 196. 

114 



scene l KING RICHARD THE SECOND 115 

And not King Richard, thou most beauteous inn, 
Why should hard-favour'd grief be lodg'd in thee, 
When triumph is become an alehouse guest ? 1 5 

King Richard. Join not with grief, fair woman, do not so, 
To make my end too sudden : learn, good soul, 
To think our former state a happy dream ; 
From which awak'd, the truth of what we are 
Shows us but this : I am sworn brother, sweet, 20 

To grim necessity, and he and I 
Will keep a league till death. Hie thee to France, 
And cloister thee in some religious house : 
Our holy lives must win a new world's crown, 
Which our profane hours here have stricken down. 25 

Queen. What, is my Richard both in shape and mind 
Transform'd and weaken'd ? hath Bolingbroke depos'd 
Thine intellect ? hath he been in thy heart ? 
The lion dying thrusteth forth his paw, 
And wounds the earth, if nothing else, with rage 30 

To be o'erpower'd ; and wilt thou, pupil-like, 
Take thy correction mildly, kiss the rod, 
And fawn on rage with base humility, 
Which art a lion, and a king of beasts ? 

25. stricken Ff | throwne Qi. 34. a Ff | the Qi. 

32. thy Ff I the Qi. 

13-15. beauteous inn . . . alehouse guest. The general idea is that 
Richard is to Bolingbroke as a well-ordered hostelry to a riotous 
alehouse, and that dismal sorrow is lodged in the former while tri- 
umphant joy is the guest of the latter. 

20. sworn brother. In mediaeval chivalry the brothers in arms 
(fratres jurati) vowed to share each other's fortunes. 

31. To be : at being. Cf. ' to make,' I, iii, 244 ; ' to report,' II, ii, 95. 
See Abbott, § 356. 



Il6 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 

King Richard. A king of beasts, indeed : if aught but 
beasts, 35 

I had been still a happy king of men. 
Good sometime queen,' prepare thee hence for France : 
Think I am dead, and that even here thou tak'st, 
As from my death-bed, thy last living leave. 
In winter's tedious nights sit by the fire 40 

With good old folks, and let them tell thee tales 
Of woeful ages long ago betid ; 
And ere thou bid good night, to quit their griefs, 
Tell thou the lamentable tale of me, 

And send the hearers weeping to their beds : 45 

For why the senseless brands will sympathize 
The heavy accent of thy moving tongue, 
And in compassion weep the fire out ; 
And some will mourn in ashes, some coal-black, 
For the deposing of a rightful king. 50 

Enter Northumberland a?id others 

Northumberland. My lord, the mind of Bolingbroke is 
chang'd ; 

39. thy last Qi | my last Ff. 51. Scene II Pope. — Enter . . . 

41. thee Ff I the Qi. and Capell | Enter . . . Ff. 
43. griefs Qi | griefe F1F2. 

42. betid : betided, happened. The spirit of this passage is repro- 
duced in Wordsworth's lines in The Solitary Reaper: 

For old, unhappy, far-off things, 
And battles long ago. 

43. quit their griefs : requite (match) their sad stories (by telling 
others as sad). 

46. For why: because. Usually but incorrectly printed as a question. 
— sympathize : suffer with, share the feeling of. 



scene i KING RICHARD THE SECOND 117 

You must to Pomfret, not unto the Tower. 
And, madam, there is order ta'en for you : 
With all swift speed you must away to France. 

King Richard. Northumberland, thou ladder where- 
withal 55 
The mounting Bolingbroke ascends my throne, 
The time shall not be many hours of age 
More than it is, ere foul sin gathering head 
Shall break into corruption : thou shalt think, 
Though he divide the realm, and give thee half, 60 
It is too little, helping him to all : 
And he shall think that thou, which know'st the way 
To plant unrightful kings, wilt know again, 
Being ne'er so little urg'd, another way 

To pluck him headlong from the usurped throne. 65 

The love of wicked men converts to fear ; 
That fear, to hate ; and hate turns one or both 
To worthy danger and deserved death. 

Northumberland. My guilt be on my head, and there 
an end : 
Take leave, and part ; for you must part forthwith. 70 

King Richard. Doubly divorc'd ! Bad men, you violate 
A twofold marriage, 'twixt my crown and me, 
And then betwixt me and my married wife. 
Let me unkiss the oath 'twixt thee and me ; 

62. And he Rowe I He QiFf. 71. you Qi I ye Ff. 

66. men Qi I friends Ff. 

52. Pomfret. Pontrefact Castle, now one of the famous ruins of 
Yorkshire, was built in the eleventh century by Ilbert de Lacy, a 
follower of William the Conqueror. 

69. there an end : that 's the end of it. A colloquial phrase. 



118 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 

And yet not so, for with a kiss 'twas made. 75 

Part us, Northumberland ; I, towards the north, 

Where shivering cold and sickness pines the clime ; 

My wife to France ; from whence, set forth in pomp, 

She came adorned hither like sweet May, 

Sent back like Hallowmas or short'st of day. 80 

Queen. And must we be divided ? must we part ? 

King Richard. Ay, hand from hand, my love, and heart 
from heart. 

Queen. Banish us both, and send the king with me. 

Northumberland. That were some love, but little policy. 

Queen. Then whither he goes, thither let me go. 85 

King Richard. So two together weeping, make one woe. 
Weep thou for me in France, I for thee here : 
Better far off than near, be ne'er the near. 
Go, count thy way with sighs ; I mine with groans. 89 

Queen. So longest way shall have the longest moans. 

King Richard. Twice for one step I '11 groan, the way 
being short, 
And piece the way out with a heavy heart. 
Come, come, in wooing sorrow let 's be brief, 
Since, wedding it, there is such length in grief : 
One kiss shall stop our mouths, and dumbly part ; 95 

Thus give I mine, and thus take I thy heart. 

78. wife Qi I Queene Ff. 88. off than . . . the near | off than 

84. Northumberland | North. neere be nere the neare Qi | off, then 
Ff. I King Qi. neere, be ne're the neere F1F2. 

77. pines: makes pine, makes lose vitality. Ci.Venus and Adonis, 602. 

80. Hallowmas: All Saints' Day. November 1. — short'st of day: 
December 21. Cf . ' near'st of life,' Macbeth, III, i, 1 17. 

88. It is better to be far apart, than to be near and yet be never the 
nearer (never able to meet). — near : nearer. Cf. Ill, ii, 64, and see note. 



scene ii KING RICHARD THE SECOND 119 

Queen. Give me mine own again ; 't were no good part, 
To take on me to keep and kill thy heart, 
So, now I have mine own again, be gone, 
That I may strive to kill it with a groan. 100 

King Richard. We make woe wanton with this fond 
delay : 
Once more adieu ; the rest, let sorrow say. [Exeunt] 

Scene II. The Duke of York's palace 
Enter York and his Duchess 

Duchess. My lord, you told me you would tell the rest, 
When weeping made you break the story off, 
Of our two cousins coming into London. 

York. Where did I leave ? 

Duchess. At that sad stop, my lord, 

Where rude misgovern'd hands from windows' tops, 5 

Threw dust and rubbish on King Richard's head. 

York. Then, as I said, the duke, great Bolingbroke, 
Mounted upon a hot and fiery steed, 
Which his aspiring rider seem'd to know, 
With slow but stately pace kept on his course, 10 

77/i? . . . palace Pope. 

Enter . . . Duchess. The first wife of Edmund, Duke of York, 
was Isabella, daughter of Peter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon. 
He married her in 1372, and had by her the Duke of Aumerle and 
all his other children. In introducing her here, Shakespeare departs 
widely from history; for she died in 1394, several years before the 
events related in the play. After her death, York married Joan, 
daughter of John Holland, Earl of Kent, who survived him about 
thirty-four years, and had three other husbands. 



120 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 

Whilst all tongues cried ' God save thee, Bolingbroke ! ' 

You would have thought the very windows spake, 

So many greedy looks of young and old 

Through casements darted their desiring eyes 

Upon his visage ; and that all the walls 1 5 

With painted imagery had said at once 

1 Jesu preserve thee ! welcome, Bolingbroke ! ' 

Whilst he, from the one side to the other turning, 

Bareheaded, lower than his proud steed's neck, 

Bespake them thus: ' I thank you, countrymen.' 20 

And thus still doing, thus he pass'd along. 

Duchess. Alack poor Richard ! where rode he the whilst ? 

York. As in a theatre, the eyes of men 
After a well-grac'd actor leaves the stage, 
Are idly bent on him that enters next, 25 

Thinking his prattle to be tedious ; 
Even so, or with much more contempt, men's eyes 
Did scowl on gentle Richard : no man cried * God save him ! ' 
No joyful tongue gave him his welcome home ; 
But dust was thrown upon his sacred head ; 30 

Which with such gentle sorrow he shook off, 
His face still combating with tears and smiles 
(The badges of his grief and patience) 
That had not God for some strong purpose steel'd 

11. Whilst Qi I While Ff. | rides Ff. 

18. the one Qi I one Ff. 28. gentle Qi | Ff omit. 

22. Alack Qi I Alas Ff. — rode Qi 

16. painted imagery : tapestries. Hung from windows or balconies 
on festive occasions. 

23-36. " The painting of this description is so lively, and the 
words so moving, that I have scarce read anything comparable to 
it in any other language." — Dryden. 



SCENE II KING RICHARD THE SECOND 12 1 

The hearts of men, they must perforce have melted, 35 

And barbarism itself have pitied him. 

But heaven hath a hand in these events, 

To whose high will we bound our calm contents. 

To Bolingbroke are we sworn subjects now, 

Whose state, and honour I for aye allow. 40 

Duchess. Here comes my son Aumerle. 

York. Aumerle that was ; 

But that is lost for being Richard's friend, 
And, madam, you must call him Rutland now : 
I am in parliament pledge for his truth 
And lasting fealty to the new-made king. 45 

Duchess. Welcome, my son : who are the violets now 
That strew the green lap of the new-come spring ? 

Aumerle. Madam, I know not, nor I greatly care not : 
God knows I had as lief be none as one. 49 

York. Well, bear you well in this new spring of time, 
Lest you be cropp'd before you come to prime. 
What news from Oxford ? hold those justs and triumphs ? 

Aumerle. For aught I know, my lord, they do. 

York. You will be there, I know. 

41. Scene IV Pope. 52. hold those ... Ff I do these 

. . . hold Qi. 

41-43. M The dukes of Aumarle, Surrie, and Excester, there pres- 
ent, were iudged to loose their names of dukes, togither with the 
honors, titles, and dignities therevnto belonging." — Holinshed. 

46-47. Who are to be the cherished plants, the favorites, in the 
court of the new king ? 

49. one : one of them. Cf. ' none,' line 99. 

52. hold . . . triumphs : are those tilts and tournaments still to 
come off? These sports were designed to afford opportunity to 
assassinate the new king. See lines 97-99. 



122 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 

Aumerle. If God prevent not, I purpose so. 55 

York. What seal is that that hangs without thy bosom ? 
Yea, look'st thou pale ? let me see the writing. 

Aumerle. My lord, 'tis nothing. 

York. No matter, then, who see it : 

I will be satisfied ; let me see the writing. 

Aumerle. I do beseech your grace to pardon me : 60 
It is a matter of small consequence, 
Which for some reasons I would not have seen. 

York. Which for some reasons, sir, I mean to see : 
I fear, I fear — 

Duchess. What should you fear ? 

'T is nothing but some bond, that he is enter'd into 65 

For gay apparel 'gainst the triumph day. 

York. Bound to himself ? What doth he with a bond 
That he is bound to ? Wife, thou art a fool. 
Boy, let me see the writing. 

Aumerle. I do beseech you, pardon me ; I may not show it. 

York. I will be satisfied : let me see it, I say. 71 

[He plucks it out of his bosom and reads it] 
Treason ! foul treason ! Villain ! traitor ! slave ! 

Duchess. What is the matter, my lord ? 

York. Ho ! who is within there ? 

Enter a Servant 

Saddle my horse, 

God for his mercy ! what treachery is here ? 75 

58. see Qi I sees Ff. day Qi I against the triumph Ff. 

65. bond Ql I band Ff. 74. Enter a Servant Capell. 

66. 'gainst . . . day | gainst . . . 

56. Seals were not placed directly on documents, but attached to 
them by strips of parchment. 



scene ii KING RICHARD THE SECOND 123 

Duchess. Why, what is it, my lord ? 

York. Give me my boots, I say : saddle my horse : 

{Exit Servant] 
Now, by mine honour, by my life, by my troth, 
I will appeach the villain. 

Duchess. What is the matter ? 

York. Peace, foolish woman. 80 

Duchess. I will not peace. What is the matter, Aumerle ? 

Aumerle. Good mother, be content ; it is no more 
Than my poor life must answer. 

Duchess. Thy life answer ? 

York. Bring me my boots : I will unto the king. 84 

Re-efiter Servant with boots 

Duchess. Strike him, Aumerle. Poor boy, thou art amaz'd. 
Hence, villain ! never more come in my sight. 

York. Give me my boots, I say. 

Duchess. Why, York, what wilt thou do ? 
Wilt thou not hide the trespass of thine own ? 
Have we more sons ? or are we like to have ? 90 

Is not my teeming date drunk up with time ? 
And wilt thou pluck my fair son from mine age, 
And rob me of a happy mother's name ? 
Is he not like thee ? Is he not thine own ? 

York. Thou fond mad woman, 95 

77. [Exit Servant] Capell. 81. Aumerle Qi | sonne F1F2. 

78. mine Qi | my Ff. — by my... 84. Scene V Pope, 
by my Qi | my . . . my Ff. 

79. appeach: impeach, inform against. As in line 102. York was 
pledged for Aumerle's loyalty. See lines 44-45. 

95, 101. fond: foolish. As in V, i, 101. 



124 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 

Wilt thou conceal this dark conspiracy ? 
A dozen of them here have ta'en the sacrament, 
And interchangeably set down their hands, 
To kill the king at Oxford. 

Duchess. He shall be none ; 

We '11 keep him here : then what is that to him ? ioo 

York. Away, fond woman ! were he twenty times my son, 
I would appeach him. 

Duchess. Hadst thou groan'd for him 

As I have done, thou wouldst be more pitiful : 
But now I know thy mind ; thou dost suspect 
That I have been disloyal to thy bed, 105 

And that he is a bastard, not thy son : 
Sweet York, sweet husband, be not of that mind : 
He is as like thee as a man may be, 
Not like to me, or any of my kin, 
And yet I love him. 

York. Make way, unruly woman ! [Exit] no 

Duchess. After, Aumerle ! mount thee upon his horse ; 
Spur post, and get before him to the king, 
And beg thy pardon ere he do accuse thee. 
I '11 not be long behind, though I be old, 
I doubt not but to ride as fast as York ; 115 

And never will I rise up from the ground 
Till Bolingbroke have pardon'd thee. Away, be gone ! 

[Exeunt] 

109. or any Qi | nor any Ff. 

97-99. " Hervpon was an indenture sexipartite made, sealed with 
their seales, and signed with their hands, in the which each stood 
bound to other, to do their whole indeuor for the accomplishing of 
their purposed exploit. Moreouer, they sware on the holie euangel- 
ists to be true and secret each to other." — Holinshed. 



SCENE in KING RICHARD THE SECOND 125 

Scene III. Windsor Castle 
Enter Bolingbroke, Percy, and other Lords 

Bolingbroke. Can no man tell me of my unthrifty son ? 
T is full three months since I did see him last : 
If any plague hang over us, 't is he. 
I would to God, my lords, he might be found : 
Inquire at London, 'mongst the taverns there, 5 

For there, they say, he daily doth frequent, 
With unrestrained loose companions, 
Even such, they say, as stand in narrow lanes, 
And beat our watch, and rob our passengers, 
Which he, young wanton and effeminate boy, 10 

Takes on the point of honour to support 
So dissolute a crew. 

Percy. My lord, some two days since I saw the prince, 
And told him of those triumphs held at Oxford. 

Bolingbroke. And what said the gallant ? 1 5 

Percy. His answer was, he would unto the stews, 
And from the common'st creature pluck a glove, 
And wear it as a favour ; and with that 
He would unhorse the lustiest challenger. 

Bolingbroke. As dissolute as desperate, yet through both 
I see some sparks of better hope : which elder years 2 1 

May happily bring forth. But who comes here ? 

Scene III | Scene VI Pope. — 4. God Qi | heauen Ff. 

Windsor Castle Camb | A royal palace 9. beat . . . rob Qilrob . . . beat Ff. 

Globe. 14. those Qi | these Ff. 

1. tell me Qi | tell Ff. 21. years Qi | dayes Ff. 

1. Prince Henry was at this time twelve years old. In the two parts 
of Henry /^Shakespeare elaborates the legend of his riotous youth. 



126 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 

Enter Aumerle 

Aumerle. Where is the king ? 

Bolingbroke. What means our cousin, that he stares 
and looks 
So wildly? 25 

Aumerle. God save your grace ! I do beseech your majesty, 
To have some conference with your grace alone. 

Bolingbroke. Withdraw yourselves, and leave us here 
alone. [Exeunt Percy and Lords] 

What is the matter with our cousin now ? 

Aumerle. For ever may my knees grow to the earth, 30 
My tongue cleave to my roof within my mouth, 
Unless a pardon ere I rise or speak. 

Bolingbroke. Intended or committed was this fault ? 
If on the first, how heinous e'er it be, 
To win thy after-love I pardon thee. 35 

Aumerle. Then give me leave that I may turn the key, 
That no man enter till my tale be done. 

Bolingbroke. Have thy desire. 

York. [ Within'] My liege, beware ! look to thyself ; 
Thou hast a traitor in thy presence there. 40 

Bolingbroke. Villain, I '11 make thee safe. [Drawing] 

Aumerle. Stay thy revengeful hand ; thou hast no cause 
to fear. 

York. [ Within] Open the door, secure, fool-hardy king : 

28. \Exeunt . . .] Capell. knocks at the doore and crieth Qi. 
37. tale be Qi | tale me Fi. 41. [Drau'ing] Johnson. 

39. [ Within] Yorke within Ff 43. [ Within] Capell | QiFf omit 

(after line 38) | The Dvke of Yorke 

34. on: of. See Abbott, § 181. 

43. secure: unsuspicious of danger. Cf. 'securely,' II, i, 266. 



scene in KING RICHARD THE SECOND 127 

Shall I for love speak treason to thy face ? 

Open the door, or I will break it open. 45 

Enter York 

Bolingbroke. What is the matter, uncle ? speak ; 
Recover breath ; tell us how near is danger, 
That we may arm us to encounter it. 

York. Peruse this writing here, and thou shalt know 
The treason that my haste forbids me show. 50 

Aumerle. Remember, as thou read'st, thy promise pass'd : 
I do repent me ; read not my name there ; 
My heart is not confederate with my hand. 

York. It was, villain, ere thy hand did set it down. 
I tore it from the traitor's bosom, king ; 55 

Fear, and not love, begets his penitence : 
Forget to pity him, lest thy pity prove 
A serpent that will sting thee to the heart. 

Bolingbroke. O heinous strong and bold conspiracy ! 
O loyal father of a treacherous son ! 60 

Thou sheer, immaculate and silver fountain, 
From whence this stream through muddy passages 
Hath held his current, and defiTd himself ! 
Thy overflow of good converts to bad, 

And thy abundant goodness shall excuse 65 

This deadly blot in thy digressing son. 

46. Scene VII Pope. 63. held Qi | had Ff. 

50. treason Qi | reason Ff. 

44. speak treason. By calling him ' secure ' and ' foolhardy.' 
61. sheer : pure, clear. Cf. Spenser : M Pactolus with his waters 
shere." 

66. digressing : deviating (from the proper course), transgressing. 



128 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 

York. So shall my virtue be his vice's bawd ; 
And he shall spend mine honour with his shame, 
As thriftless sons their scraping fathers' gold. 
Mine honour lives when his dishonour dies, 70 

Or my sham'd life in his dishonour lies : 
Thou kill'st me in his life ; giving him breath, 
The traitor lives, the true man 's put to death. 

Duchess. [ Within~\ What ho, my liege ! for God's sake 
let me in. 

Bolingbroke. What shrill-voic'd suppliant makes this 
eager cry? 75 

Duchess. A woman, and thy aunt, great king ; 't is I. 
Speak with me, pity me, open the door : 
A beggar begs that never begg'd before. 

Bolingbroke. Our scene is alter'd from a serious thing, 
And now chang'd to ' The Beggar and the King.' 80 

My dangerous cousin, let your mother in, 
I know she 's come to pray for your foul sin. 

York. If thou do pardon, whosoever pray, 
More sins for this forgiveness prosper may. 
This f ester 'd joint cut off, the rest rest sound ; 85 

This let alone will all the rest confound. 

Enter Duchess 

Duchess. O king, believe not this hard-hearted man ! 
Love, loving not itself, none other can. 

74. God's Qi I heauens Ff. 85. rest rest Qi I rest rests Ff. 

76. thy Qi I thine Ff. 87. Scene VIII Pope. 

80. An allusion to the old ballad of King Cophetua. Cf. Romeo and 
Juliet, II, i, 14 : "When King Cophetua lov'd the beggar maid." 
88. Love, loving not its own, can love none other. 



scene in KING RICHARD THE SECOND 129 

York. Thou frantic woman, what dost thou make here ? 
Shall thy old dugs once more a traitor rear ? 90 

Duchess. Sweet York, be patient. Hear me, gentle liege. 

[Kneels] 

Bolingbroke. Rise up, good aunt. 

Duchess. Not yet, I thee beseech : 

For ever will I walk upon my knees, 
And never see day that the happy sees, 
Till thou give joy ; until thou bid me joy, 95 

By pardoning Rutland, my transgressing boy. 

Aumerle. Unto my mother's prayers I bend my knee. 

[Kneels] 

York. Against them both my true joints bended be. 

[Kneels] 
111 mayst thou thrive, if thou grant any grace ! 

Duchess. Pleads he in earnest ? look upon his face ; 100 
His eyes do drop no tears, his prayers are in jest ; 
His words come from his mouth, ours from our breast : 
He prays but faintly and would be denied ; 
We pray with heart and soul, and all beside : 
His weary joints would gladly rise, I know ; 105 

Our knees shall kneel till to the ground they grow : 
His prayers are full of false hypocrisy ; 
Ours of true zeal and deep integrity. 
Our prayers do out-pray his ; then let them have 
That mercy which true prayer ought to have. no 

Bolingbroke. Good aunt, stand up. 

9*> 97 > 98- [Kneels] Rowe. no. prayer Qi | prayers Ff. 

93. walk Qi I kneele F1F2. m, 129. Bolingbroke | Bui. Ff ! 

99. Ill . . . grace Qi | Ff omit. . Yorke Qi. 
106. shall Ff I still Qi. 

89. make : do. Cf. As You Like It, I, i, 31 : "what make you here ? " 



130 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 

Duchess. Nay, do not say, * stand up ' ; 

Say ' pardon ' first, and afterwards ' stand up.' 
And if I were thy nurse, thy tongue to teach, 
f Pardon ' should be the first word of thy speech. 
I never long'd to hear a word till now : 115 

Say ' pardon,' king, let pity teach thee how : 
The word is short, but not so short as sweet, 
No word like ' pardon,' for kings' mouths so meet. 

York. Speak it in French, king ; say, ' pardonne moi.' 

Duchess. Dost thou teach pardon pardon to destroy ? 120 
Ah, my sour husband, my hard-hearted lord, 
That set'st the word itself against the word ! 
Speak ' pardon ' as 't is current in our land ; 
The chopping French we do not understand. 
Thine eye begins to speak, set thy tongue there : 125 

Or in thy piteous heart plant thou thine ear ; 
That hearing how our plaints and prayers do pierce, 
Pity may move thee ' pardon ' to rehearse. 

Bolingbroke. Good aunt, stand up. 

Duchess. I do not sue to stand ; 

Pardon is all the suit I have in hand. 130 

Bolingbroke. I pardon him, as God shall pardon me. 

Duchess. O happy vantage of a kneeling knee ! 
Yet am I sick for fear : speak it again ; 

112. Say . . . and Oi I But . . . 129. Bolingbroke | Bui. Ff. | 
and Ff. ' Yorke Qi. 

113. And if QiFf I An if Theobald. 131, 146. God Qi | heauen Ff. 

119. ' pardonne moi ' : excuse me. By adding moi York ironically 
turns the French word pardonnej; ' pardon,' into ' excuse me,' a 
polite form of refusal. 

124. chopping: changing, bandying (that can change 'pardon' 
into 'refuse to pardon'). 



scene iv KING RICHARD THE SECOND 131 

Twice saying ' pardon ' doth not pardon twain, 
But makes one pardon strong. 

Bolingbroke. I pardon him with all my heart. 135 

Duchess. A god on earth thou art. 

Bolingbroke. But for our trusty brother-in-law and the 
abbot, 
With all the rest of that consorted crew, 
Destruction straight shall dog them at the heels : 
Good uncle, help to order several powers 140 

To Oxford, or where'er these traitors are : 
They shall not live within this world, I swear, 
But I will have them, if I once know where. 
Uncle, farewell ; and, cousin too adieu : 
Your mother well hath pray'd, and prove you true. 145 

Duchess. Come, my old son : I pray God make thee new. 

\^Exeunf\ 

Scene IV. The same 

Enter Exton and Servant 

Exton. Didst thou not mark the king, what words he spake, 
1 Have I no friend will rid me of this living fear ? ' 
Was it not so ? 

135. I pardon . . . heart QiFf | 146. [Exeunt] Exeunt. Manet sir 

With all my heart I pardon him Pierce Exton, &c. Qi | Exit Ff. 
Pope Globe. Scene IV Steevens | Scene IX 

137. and the Qi | the Ff. Pope | Ff continue Scene. 

144. cousin too Q5 | cosin QiFf. 

137. brother-in-law : John, Earl of Huntington, who had married 
the Lady Elizabeth, Bolingbroke's sister. 

140. several: separate. The original (Latin) meaning. Often so. 

145. prove you true. Aumerle, who succeeded his father as Duke of 
York, died leading the van at Agincourt. Cf. Henry V, IV, vi, 3-32. 



132 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 

Servant. These were his very words. 

Exton. ' Have I no friend ? ' quoth he : he spake it twice, 
And urg'd it twice together, did he not ? 5 

Servant. He did. 

Exton. And speaking it, he wistly look'd on me ; 
As who should say, * I would thou wert the man 
That would divorce this terror from my heart ' ; 
Meaning the king at Pomfret : come, let 's go ; 10 

I am the king's friend, and will rid his foe. [Exeunt] 



Scene V. Pomfret Castle 
Ente?- King Richard 

King Richard. I have been studying how I may compare 
This prison where I live unto the world : 
And for because the world is populous, 
And here is not a creature but myself, 

I cannot do it ; yet I '11 hammer it out. 5 

My brain I '11 prove the female to my soul, 
My soul the father : and these two beget 
A generation of still-breeding thoughts, 
And these same thoughts people this little world ; 

3. These Qi | Those Ff. I A prison at Pomfret Castle Pope. 

Scene V Steevens | Scaena Quarta i. I may Qi | to Ff. 

Ff I Scene X Pope. — Pomfret Castle 5. hammer it Qi I hammer 't Ff. 

8. who: he who. An indefinite pronoun. See Abbott, § 257. 
11. rid : remove, destroy. Cf. The Tempest, I, ii, 364. 

8. still-breeding : continually breeding. Cf. ' still-closing waters,' 
The Tempest, III, iii, 64. 

9. this little world. An allusion to the Platonic doctrine that man 
is the microcosm, or little world, being an epitome of the exterior 



scene v KING RICHARD THE SECOND 133 

In humours like the people of this world, 10 

For no thought is contented. The better sort, 

As thoughts of things divine, are intermix'd 

With scruples and do set the word itself 

Against the word, 

As thus : ' Come, little ones ' ; and then again, 1 5 

' It is as hard to come as for a camel 

To thread the postern of a small needle's eye.' 

Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot 

Unlikely wonders ; how these vain weak nails 

May tear a passage through the flinty ribs 20 

Of this hard world, my ragged prison walls ; 

And, for they cannot, die in their own pride. 

Thoughts tending to content flatter themselves, 

That they are not the first of fortune's slaves, 

Nor shall not be the last ; like silly beggars, 25 

Who sitting in the stocks refuge their shame 

That many have, and others must sit there ; 

And in this thought they find a kind of ease, 

Bearing their own misfortunes on the back 



13, 14. word Qi I faith Ff. Fi. — small Qi | Ff omit. 

17. thread Q4 I threed Qi | thred 29. misfortunes Qi | misfortune Ff. 

universe, or great world (macrocosm) ; and that things existing 
without are made knowable to us by certain things within us corre- 
sponding to them or resembling them. 

10. humours : moods (natural to a temperament). This meaning 
comes from the theory of the old physiologists that four cardinal 
' humors ' — blood, choler or yellow bile, phlegm, and melancholy or 
black bile — determine by their conditions and proportions a person's 
physical and mental qualities. 

26-27. refuge their shame . . . there : provide refuge for their 
shame, saying that many have sat, and others must sit, there. 



134 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 

Of such as have before endur'd the like. 30 

Thus play I in one person many people, 

And none contented : sometimes am I king ; 

Then treasons make me wish myself a beggar, 

And so I am : then crushing penury 

Persuades me I was better when a king ; 35 

Then am I king'd again : and by and by 

Think that I am unking'd by Bolingbroke, 

And straight am nothing. But whate'er I be, 

Nor I, nor any man that but man is, 

With nothing shall be pleas'd, till he be eas'd 40 

With being nothing. Music do I hear ? [Music] 

Ha, ha! keep time : how sour sweet music is, 

When time is broke, and no proportion kept ! 

So is it in the music of men's lives ; 

And here have I the daintiness of ear 45 

To check time broke in a disorder'd string ; 

But for the concord of my state and time, 

Had not an ear to hear my true time broke. 

I wasted time, and now doth time waste me ; 

For now hath time made me his numb 'ring clock : 50 

31. person Qi | Prison Ff. 38. be Qi | am Ff. 

33. treasons make Qi | Treason 46. check Qi | heare F1F2. 

makes Ff. 

40-41. till . . . nothing : till he finds the relief that comes with 
death. A play on ' nothing ' in lines 38 and 40. 

46. check : censure, reprove. 

50-57. " There are three ways in which a clock notices the prog- 
ress of time ; namely, by the libration of the pendulum, the index 
on the dial, and the striking of the hour. To these the king, in his 
comparison, severally alludes ; his sighs corresponding to the jarring 
of the pendulum, which, at the same time that it watches or numbers 



scene v KING RICHARD THE SECOND 135 

My thoughts are minutes, and with sighs they jar 

Their watches on unto mine eyes, the outward watch, 

Whereto my finger, like a dial's point, 

Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears. 

Now sir, the sound that tells what hour it is 55 

Are clamorous groans, which strike upon my heart, 

Which is the bell : so sighs and tears and groans 

Show minutes, times, and hours : but my time 

Runs posting on in Bolingbroke's proud joy, 

While I stand fooling here, his Jack o' th' clock. 60 

This music mads me ; let it sound no more ! 

For though it have holp madmen to their wits, 

In me it seems it will make wise men mad 

Yet blessing on his heart that gives it me ! 

For 't is a sign of love ; and love to Richard ) 65 

Is a strange brooch in this all-hating world. 

56. which Qi I that Ff. and times Ff. —but Q1F1 | O but 

58. times, and hours Qi | houres, F2F3F4. 

the seconds, marks also their progress in minutes on the dial or out- 
ward watch, to which the king compares his eyes ; and their want 
of figures is supplied by a succession of tears, or, to use an expres- 
sion of Milton, ?)iimite-drops ; his finger, by as regularly wiping these 
away, performs the office of the dial-point ; his clamorous groans 
are the sounds that tell the hour." — Henley. 

51-52. jar Their watches : cause their numbers to tick. 

60. Jack 0' th' clock : miniature figure of a man that struck the bell. 

62. Music caused the evil spirit to depart from Saul. / Samttel, 
xvi, 23. Cf. The Tempest, I, ii, 390-392 ; The Merchant of Venice, 
V, i, 66-87. 

66. brooch : ornament. Properly an ornamental clasp, worn on the 
hat. Cf. Hamlet, IV, vii, 94-95 : 

I know him well, he is the brooch indeed, 
And gem of all the nation. 



136 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 

E?iter a Groom of the stable 

Groom. Hail, royal prince ! 

King Richard. Thanks, noble peer ; 

The cheapest of us is ten groats too dear. 
What art thou ? and how com'st thou hither, 
Where no man never comes, but that sad dog 70 

That brings me food, to make misfortune live ? 

Groom. I was a poor groom of thy stable, king, 
When thou wert king ; who, travelling towards York, 
With much ado at length have gotten leave 
To look upon my sometimes royal master's face. 75 

O, how it yearn'd my heart when I beheld 
In London streets, that coronation day, 
When Bolingbroke rode on roan Barbary, 
That horse that thou so often hast bestrid, 
That horse, that I so carefully have dress'd ! 80 

67. Scene XI Pope. 70. never Qi | euer Ff. 

67-68. ' Noble peer ' is meant as a sportive rejoinder to the 
Groom's ' royal prince,' and the humor of the royal sufferer as thus 
shown is very gentle and graceful. So, in The Merchant of Venice, 
II, ix, 85, a servant, entering, asks, " Where is my lady ? " and Portia 
replies, " Here : what would my lord ? " In the text a quibble is 
also intended on ' royal ' and ' noble,' which were used as names of 
gold coins. In Elizabeth's time the royal was 10s., the noble 6s. 8d., 
the groat 4d. ; so that the difference between the royal and the noble 
was ten groats. And Richard says that the cheapest of them, the 
noble, worth twenty groats, is rated at double his true worth. 

76. yearn'd : grieved. This is the only meaning of the word in 
Shakespeare, whether it is used transitively, as here, or intransitively. 
Skeat considers earn {yearn) 'to grieve,' of distinct origin from earn 
(year?i), 'to desire.' Bradley considers it the same word. 

70-94. '" This incident of roan Barbary is an invention of the poet. 
Did Shakespeare intend only a little bit of helpless pathos ? Or is 



scene v KING RICHARD THE SECOND 137 

King Richard. Rode he on Barbary ? Tell me, gentle 
friend, 
How went he under him ? 

Groom. So proudly as if he disdain'd the ground. 

King Richard. So proud that Bolingbroke was on his 
back! 
That jade hath eat bread from my royal hand ; 85 

This hand hath made him proud with clapping him : 
Would he not stumble ? would he not fall down 
(Since pride must have a fall) and break the neck 
Of that proud man that did usurp his back ? 
Forgiveness, horse ! why do I rail on thee, 90 

Since thou, created to be aw'd by man, 
Wast born to bear ? I was not made a horse, 
And yet I bear a burden like an ass, 
Spurr'd, gall'd, and tir'd by jauncing Bolingbroke. 

Enter Keeper, with a dish 

Keeper. Fellow, give place ; here is no longer stay. 95 
King Richard. If thou love me, 't is time thou wert away. 

83. if he Oi I if he had Ff. gall'd Ff. 

94. Spurr'd, gall'd, Qi | Spur- 95. Scene XII Pope. 

there a touch of hidden irony here ? A poor spark of affection re- 
mains for Richard, but it has been kindled half by Richard, and half 
by Richard's horse. The fancy of the fallen king disports itself for 
the last time, and hangs its latest wreath around this incident. Then 
suddenly comes the darkness. Suddenly the hectic passion of Rich- 
ard flares ; he snatches the axe from a servant, and deals about him 
deadly blows. In another moment he is extinct ; the graceful futile 
existence has ceased." — Dowden. 

94. jauncing. Used of a rider showing off his mount. See Murray 
and cf. Romeo and Juliet, II, v, 53. 



138 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 

Groom. What my tongue dares not, that my heart shall 
say. [Exit] 

Keeper. My lord, will 't please you to fall to ? 

King Richard. Taste of it first, as thou art wont to do. 

Keeper. My lord, I dare not : Sir Pierce of Exton, who 
lately came from th' king, commands the contrary. 101 

King Richard. The devil take Henry of Lancaster and 
thee! 
Patience is stale, and I am weary of it. [Beats the keeper] 

Keeper. Help, help, help ! 

Enter Exton and Servants, armed 

King Richard. How now ? what means death in this 
rude assault? 105 

99. art Qi I wer't Ff. Capell | Enter . . . Seruants Ff | The 

103. [Beats . . .] Rowe. murderers rush in Oi. 

105. Enter . . . Servants, armed 

99-104. " This knight . . . came to Pomfret, commanding the 
esquier that was accustomed to sew [set the dishes on the tabie] 
and take the assaie [taste the food] before King Richard, to doo 
so no more. . . . King Richard . . . was serued without courtesie or 
assaie ; wherevpon much maruelling at the sudden change, he de- 
manded of the esquier whie he did not his dutie : Sir (said he) I am 
otherwise commanded by sir Piers of Exton, which is newlie come 
from K. Henrie. When King Richard heard that word, he tooke 
the keruing knife in his hand, and strake the esquier on the head, 
saieng : The diuell take Henrie of Lancaster and thee togither." — 
Holinshed. 

105-118. w King Richard . . . wrung the bill [halberd] out of his 
hands & so valiantlie defended himself that he slue foure of those 
that thus came to assaile him. . . . He was felled with a stroke of a 
pollax which sir Piers gaue him vpon the head. ... It is said that 
sir Piers of Exton, after he had thus slaine him, wept right bitterlie, 
as one striken with the pricke of a giltie conscience." — Holinshed. 



scene vi KING RICHARD THE SECOND 139 

Villain, thy own hand yields thy death's instrument. 

[Snatching an axe from a Servant and killing hint] 
Go thou, and fill another room in hell. 

\He kills another. Then Exton strikes him down] 
That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire, 
That staggers thus my person. Exton, thy fierce hand 
Hath with the king's blood stain'd the king's own land, no 
Mount, mount, my soul ! thy seat is up on high ; 
Whilst my gross flesh sinks downward, here to die. [Dies'] 

Exton. As full of valour as of royal blood : 
Both have I spill'd : O, would the deed were good ! 
For now the devil, that told me I did well, 1 1 5 

Says that this deed is chronicled in hell. 
This dead king to the living king I '11 bear : 
Take hence the rest, and give them burial here. [Exeunt] 

Scene VI. Windsor Castle 

Flourish. Enter Bolingbroke, York, with other Lords, 
and Attendants 

Bolingbroke. Kind uncle York, the latest news we hear 
Is that the rebels have consum'd with fire 
Our town of Cicester in Gloucestershire, 
But whether they be ta'en or slain, we hear not. 

106. thy Qi I thine Ff. — {Snatch- Scene VI Steevens I Scaena 
ing . . .] Globe I snatching an Axe, Quinta Ff I Scene XIII Pope. — 
and killing him Capell. Windsor Castle Camb. 

107. [He kills another Pope.— 1. Bolingbroke I Bui. Ff|King 
Then Exton . . .] Here Exton ... Qi (and throughout the Scene). 

Ql I Exton . . . Ff. 3. Cicester Rowe I Ciceter QiFf. 

112. [Dies] Rowe. 

3. Cicester. Still the common local pronunciation of Cirencester. 



140 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 

Enter Northumberland 

Welcome, my lord : what is the news ? 5 

Northumberland. First to thy sacred state wish I all 
happiness. 

The next news is, I have to London sent 

The heads of Oxford, Salisbury, Blunt, and Kent : 

The manner of their taking may appear 

At large discoursed in this paper here. 10 

Bolingbroke. We thank thee, gentle Percy, for thy pains, 

And to thy worth will add right worthy gains. 

Enter Fitzwater 

Fitzwater. My lord, I have from Oxford sent to London 
The heads of Brocas and Sir Bennet Seely, 
Two of the dangerous consorted traitors, 15 

That sought at Oxford thy dire overthrow. 

Bolingbroke. Thy pains, Fitzwater, shall not be forgot, 
Right noble is thy merit, well I wot. 

Enter Percy, and the Bishop of Carlisle 

Percy. The grand conspirator, Abbot of Westminster, 
With clog of conscience and sour melancholy, 20 

Hath yielded up his body to the grave ; 

8. Oxford, Salisbury, Blunt Qi I (Salsbury Fi), Spencer, Blunt Ff. 
Oxford, Salisbury Q2Q3Q4 I Salisbury 

19-21. This Abbot of Westminster was William of Colchester. 
The representation is taken from Holinshed, but is unhistorical, as 
he survived the king many years ; and, though called " the grand 
conspirator," it is very doubtful whether he had any hand in the 
conspiracy ; at least nothing was proved against him. 



scene vi KING RICHARD THE SECOND 141 

But here is Carlisle living, to abide 

Thy kingly doom and sentence of his pride. 

Bolingbroke. Carlisle, this is your doom : 
Choose out some secret place, some reverend room, 25 

More than thou hast, and with it joy thy life : 
So as thou liv'st in peace, die free from strife : 
For though mine enemy thou hast ever been, 
High sparks of honour in thee have I seen. 

Enter Exton, with persons bearing a coffi?i 

Exton. Great king, within this coffin I present 30 

Thy buried fear : herein all breathless lies 
The mightiest of thy greatest enemies, 
Richard of Bordeaux, by me hither brought. 

Bolingbroke. Exton, I thank thee not, for thou hast 
wrought 
A deed of slander with thy fatal hand 35 

Upon my head and all this famous land. 

Exton. From your own mouth, my lord, did I this deed. 

Bolingbroke. They love not poison that do poison need, 
Nor do I thee : though I did wish him dead, 
I hate the murderer, love him murdered. 40 

33. Bordeaux | Burdeaux QiFf. 35. slander Qi | slaughter Q2Ff. 

24. " The bishop of Carleill was impeached and condemned of 
the same conspiracie, but the king of his mercifull clemencie par- 
doned him of that offense, although he died shortly after more 
through feare than force of sicknesse as some haue written." — 
Holinshed. 

30. Cf. King John, IV, ii, 203-206. 

33. Richard of Bordeaux. Richard was born at Bordeaux. 

35-36. A deed of slander . . . Upon : a deed to bring reproach upon. 



142 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 

The guilt of conscience take thou for thy labour, 

But neither my good word, nor princely favour ; 

With Cain go wander through the shade of night, 

And never show thy head by day nor light. 

Lords, I protest, my soul is full of woe, 45 

That blood should sprinkle me to make me grow : 

Come mourn with me, for that I do lament, 

And put on sullen black incontinent. 

I '11 make a voyage to the Holy Land, 

To wash this blood off from my guilty hand : 50 

March sadly after ; grace my mournings here 

In weeping after this untimely bier. \Exeunt\ 

43. through the shade Ff I through 47. that Ff | what Qi. 

shades Qi. 51. mournings Qi | mourning Ff. 

48. sullen. Cf. I, iii, 227, and see note. — incontinent: immediately. 

49-50. This is the motive of the opening scene of 1 Henry IV. 

52. " After he was thus dead, his bodie was imbalmed and seered 
and couered with lead all saue the face to the intent that all men 
might see him and perceiue that he was departed this life : for as 
the corps was conueied from Pomfret to London, in all the townes 
and places where those that had the conueiance of it did staie with 
it all night, they caused dirige to be soong in the euening and masse 
of requiem in the moorning." — Holinshed. 



INDEX 

This Index includes the most important words, phrases, etc., explained in 
the notes. The figures in heavy-faced type refer to the pages ; those in plain 
type, to the lines containing what is explained. 



a dust : 64 91 

a happy gentleman in : 

70 9 
Abbot of Westminster : 

140 19 
absent time : 63 79 
Act I, Scene 1 : 3 
Act I, Scene II : 14 
Act I, Scene III : 18 
advised: 26 188 
affects : 34 30 
against : 94 28 
aggravate the note : 5 

43 
all ill left : 67 154 
and humour' d thus, 

comes : 80 168-169 
apish nation : 38 22 
apparent : 4 13, 104 124 
appeach : 123 79 
appeal : 3 4, 100 45 
appointments : 85 53 
apprehension : 32 300 
apricocks : 94 29 
argument : 4 12 
as in a theatre, etc. : 

120 23-36 
as to jest : 22 95 
as to mine enemy : 27 

193 
at all points : 18 2 
at large : 72 41 
at six and seven : 58 

122 



at time of year : 95 57 

atone : 14 202 

attach : 67 156 

attainder : 99 24 

Aumerle : 2 3 

awful : 86 76 

ay : 107 20 1 

baffl'd : 12 no 

Bagot : 2 5, 78 122 

bait : 109 238 

balm : 107 207 

band : 3 2 

barbed: 88 in 

Barkloughly : 72 l 

base court : 90 176 

bay-trees ... all with- 
er'd : 68 8 

beadsmen : 78 116 

beauteous inn . . . ale- 
house guest : 115 
13-15 

1 Beggar . . . King ' : 
128 80 

beholding : 105 160 

being altogether had: 
93 15 

benevolences : 49 250 

Berkeley : 2 4 

beseeming me : 103 116 

best: 103 116 

betid: 116 42 

bias : 93 5 

bills: 78 lis 

blanks : 49 250 

143 



blood: 9 113 
Bolingbroke : 4 19 
bonnet : 34 31 
boy : 101 65 
braving: 65 112, 66 143 
bring : 32 304 
broking pawn : 52 293 
brooch : 135 66 
brooks : 72 2 
brother-in-law: 131 137 
but now : 76 76 
Caesar's ill-erected 

tower : 114 2 
caitiff : 16 53 
career : 16 49 
careful : 56 75 
care-tun'd : 77 92 
Carlisle : 141 24 
cause you come : 5 26 
change his spots : 12 

175 
charters : 35 48 
check : 134 46 
choler : 11 153 
chopping : 130 124 
Cicester : 139 3 
clean : 70 io 
clerk : 106 173 
climate : 104 130 
close : 37 12 
comfortable : 56 76 
commend : 88 116 
common trade : 89 156 
companion grief : 17 55 



144 



THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 



compare between : 46 

185 
compassionate : 26 174 
complain myself : 16 42 
complices : 67 165 
composition : 40 73 
conceit : 54 33 
conclude : 11 156 
conduct : 105 157 
confound itself : 96 60 
convey : 112 317 
Cotswold : 60 9 
craftsmen . . . craft : 

34 28 
cries ... to me : 9 104- 

106 
dead time : 98 10 
dear : 10 130 
death . . . the antic : 

80 162 
deceivable : 64 84 
deed of slander upon : 

141 35-36 
defend : 19 18 
depose him : 19 30 
design : 14 203 
despised : 64 95 
Destinies : 15 15 
determinate : 25 150 
detested : 65 109 
digg'd : 90 169 
digressing : 127 66 
discomfortable : 74 36 
distrain'd : 66 131 
double-fatal: 78 117 
Dramatis Personam : 2 l 
draws . . . makes : 60 5 
Duchess of York: 119 l 
Duke of Gloucester : 8 

100 
Duke of York : 37 l 
eager : 6 49 
ear : 82 212 
Earl of Salisbury: 68 l 
Earl of Wiltshire: 47 

215 



Earl of Worcester : 55 

58 
Ely House : 36 58 
enfranchisement : 87 

114 
England : 99 17 
entreated : 72 37 
envy : 15 21 
events : 47 214 
exactly: 10 140 
except : 33 6 
expedience : 51 287 
expedient : 35 39 
eye of heaven : 30 275 
faint : 52 297 
fantastic summer's : 

32 299 
farm : 35 45 
favours : 106 168 
feeble wrong : 13 191 
fight and die : 81 184 
Flint castle : 82 209 
foil : 30 266 
fond : 123 95, 124 101 
fondly : 91 185, 101 72 
for : 33 12, 35 43 
for me : 33 6 
for that : 24 125 
for why : 116 46 
gage ... in gage : 100 

34 
gaunt in being old : 40 

73-83 
Gaunt, . . . Lancaster : 

3 l 
Gaunt's rebukes : 45 

166 
glose : 37 10 
Gloucester : 2 7 
gnarling : 32 292 
go bear : 22 103 
go signify : 85 49 
God : 13 187 
grav'd : 79 140 
Hallowmas : 118 80 
hath . . . grow : 82 212 



haviour: 21 77 
heaven . . . they : 14 

6-7 
Hereford : 3 3 
high-stomack'd : 4 18 
his : 43 119, 79 135, 110 

267 
his heart-blood which : 

12 172-173 
hold . . . triumphs : 121 

52 
holds you dear as 

Harry: 44 143-144 
household coat : 71 24 
humours : 133 10 
I could sing, etc. : 94 

22 
I task . . . like : 100 

52 
ill : 41 92-94 
imp out : 52 292 
imprese : 71 25 
in : 67 160 

in a wilderness : 101 74 
in manner : 70 1 1 
in post : 52 296 
in presence : 101 62 
in this new world : 102 

78 
incontinent : 142 48 
indifferent : 65 116 
inhabitable : 6 65 
inherit us : 7 85 
inspir'd . . . expiring : 

38 31-32 
is : 30 260 
is current : 28 231 
Jack o' th' clock : 135 

60 
jar their watches : 135 

51-52 
jauncing : 137 94 
joy : 60 15 
kerns : 45 156 
kill ... in me : 41 86 
knots : 95 46 



INDEX 



145 



Lancaster : 63 70 
lean-witted : 42 115 
learn : 104 120 
letters patents : 47 202 
lewd : 8 90 
liberal : 48 229 
light : 7 82 
lingers in extremity : 

56 72 
lodge : 90 162 
long apprenticehood : 

30 271 
long-parted mother : 73 

8 
love they to live : 43 

138 
make : 129 89 
make a leg : 90 175 
manage : 35 39 
manual seal of death : 

99 25 
map : 114 12 
marry : 34 16 
me rather had : 91 192 
measure : 31 291, 93 7 
merely : 49 243 
merit : 25 156 
meteors : 68 9 
mistake : 83 17 
model : 15 28, 79 153 
model . . . stand : 114 

11 
moe : 49 239 
month to bleed : 11 157 
mortal : 73 21 
motive : 13 193 
music . . . holp mad- 
men : 135 61-62 
my fair stars : 99 21 
my kingdom's heir : 9 

116 
my succeeding issue : 

19 20 
my teeth . . . face : 13 

192-195 
near : 75 64, 118 88 



nicely : 41 84 

no venom else : 45 157 

noble peer : 136 67 

numb'ring clock : 134 
50-57 

obscene : 104 131 

of: 81 186 

on: 126 34 

other's : 4 22 

owes : 106 185 

pain of life : 24 140 

painted imagery : 120 
16 

pale : 95 40 

pale-fac'd : 64 94 

palmer's : 89 151 

pardonne moi : 130 119 

parle : 13 192 

part : 70 3 

partial slander : 29 241 

party : 88 115 

party-verdict : 28 234 

pawn : 7 74 

peace : 78 128 

pelican : 43 126 

pelting : 39 60 

perspectives . . . dis- 
tinguish form : 53 
18-20 

Phaethon : 91 178 

pill'd : 49 246 

pines : 118 77 

pitch : 9 109 

Plashy : 17 66 

plot : 113 324 

Pomfret : 117 52 

pompous : 109 250 

possess 'd : 42 107 

post : 6 56 

power : 55 46 

presence : 29 249, 31 
289 

presently: 36 52, 81 
179 

press'd : 75 58 

press 'd to death : 96 72 



prodigal . . . dolour of : 

29 256-257 
property : 79 135 
prove you true : 131 

145 
quit their griefs : 116 

43 
rankle : 32 302 
rapier : 100 40 
Ravenspurgh : 52 296 
receipt : 10 126 
recreant : 16 53 
refuge their shame, 

etc. : 133 26-27 
regreet : 21 67, 24 142 
remember : 30 269 
repeal : 55 49, 102 85 
rescued the Black 

Prince : 64 101 
restful : 99 12 
retir'd : 55 46, 102 96 
revenues : 108 212 
reversion : 35 35, 54 38 
rheum : 33 8 
Richard of Bordeaux : 

14133 
rid : 132 11 
right-drawn sword : 6 

46 
ring : 57 92 
roan Barbary : 136 78 
rouse : 65 128 
royalties : 46 190 
rubs : 93 4 
rue : 27 205 
rug-headed : 45 156 
St. George : 22 84 
St. Lambert's day : 14 

199 
Salisbury : 68 l 
Scroop : 77 91 
seal : 122 56 
secure : 126 43 
securely : 22 97, 50 266 
security : 74 34 
see : 47 217 



146 



THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 



seize the crown : 106 

181 
self . . . conceit: 80 166 
self-borne arms : 63 80 
senseless conjuration : 

73 23 
set down their hands : 

124 98 
set of beads: 89 147 
sets me : 101 57 
several : 131 140 
shadows, which shows: 

53 14-15 
sheer : 127 61 
short 'st of day : 118 80 
shrewd : 75 59 
sift him : 4 12 
signiories : 71 22, 102 

89 
Sir John Ramston : 51 

283 
sister : 57 105 
slander : 9 113 
sly slow hours : 25 150 
so my untruth : 57 101 
son . . . Arundel : 51 

280 
sooth : 89 136 
sort : 109 246 
speak treason : 127 44 
staff : 55 59 
stands . . . upon : 66 

138 
still : 4 22, 54 34 
still-breeding : 132 8 
strew' d : 31 289 
stuff . . . throat : 5 44 
subjected : 80 176 
substitutes : 35 48 
sue his livery : 47 203- 

204 



suggest : 8 101 
sullen : 28 227, 142 48 
sullens : 44 139 
sun to sun : 101 55 
supplant : 45 156 
sworn brother : 115 20 
sworn duty : 10 134 
sympathize : 116 46 
take Hereford's rights : 

46 195 
tendering : 5 32 
that : 12 168, 74 38 
the shadow . . . your 

face : 111 292-293 
there an end : 117 69 
there is no boot : 12 

164 
there lies . . . eyes : 

90 168-169 
these articles : 109 243 
this : 102 84 
this little world : 132 9 
those hands : 14 4 
thus high : 92 195 
tidings : 50 272 
till . . . nothing : 134 

40-41 
timeless : 98 5 
't is doubt : 96 69 
't is in reversion : 54 

38 
't is nothing less : 54 

34 
to : 111 297 
to be : 115 31 
to fight : 81 183 
to make : 29 244 
to rust: 88 116 
to the bay : 65 128 
to thrive : 22 84 
toil'd : 102 96 



to-morrow next : 74 217 
tongues, can : 6 49-50 
too good : 5 40 
tribute . . . supple 

knee : 34 33 
twenty : 76 76 
unavoided : 50 268 
undeck : 109 250 
underbearing : 34 29 
unfurnish'd : 17 68 
unthrifty son : 125 l 
upon good advice : 28 

233 
upon his party : 82 203 
verge : 42 102 
want their remedies : 

92 203 
wanting the manage : 

91 179 
wanton : 27 214 
warder : 23 118 
was never lion rag'd : 

45 173 
was this face . . . men : 

111 281-283 
waste : 42 103 
waxen : 21 75 
we did observe : 33 1 
weep for joy : 72 4-6 
Westminster Hall : 98 
what dost . . . object : 

5 28 
where : 81 185 
who : 132 8 
Willoughby : 2 6 
with wit's regard: 3828 
Woodstock's blood: 

14i 
worst : 103 115 
wrongs : 65 128 
yearn'd : 136 76 



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